


Strange as it seems.

by merhoran



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Fanfiction, High School, Love, Popular, nerd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-07
Updated: 2013-08-07
Packaged: 2017-12-22 16:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 59,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/915562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merhoran/pseuds/merhoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lee never was one of those girls who are afraid of breaking a nail and scream when they see an insect. She never listened to Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift, or watched Pretty Little Liars; she never read Twilight. She wasn’t a cheerio as all the hot girls are, but she was always the queen of the dance.</p><p>Lee was different, but only a few knew it. Niall always suspected it, that was why he found her so interesting. And that was exactly what was going to make them chase each other until they collided, scratching a deep wound in them that would stay for long. But they didn’t know it yet.</p><p>If you had told them that day, at the field, what was about to happen between them, they would have laughed. Everybody would have laughed.</p><p>
  <i>“That could never happen.”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *This fic is _only_ about Niall.
> 
> *Some thoughts and things that happened in the past are in _italic_.

Chapter 1.  
The boy was staring at her again. The curve of her waist was his favorite thing to look at, also the little tattoo she had on her neck. A little bird or a half-moon, he was never sure; it was always covered by her hair. She was resting her back over the chair two seats before him, so he thought he could watch her without her noticing, but she was definitely noticing.  
 _“Damn, he is staring at me again.”_ She thought. _“This is so fucking creepy.”_  
But he couldn’t help it; she was utterly beautiful and hot. He could have got up right there and roughly crash his lips onto hers, he desired it with all his might, but there was a little, an insignificant problem. She was way out of his league. And when I say way, I mean it.  
Lee was not only beautiful, she was also intelligent, nice, she had such a good taste in music and clothes, her parents were rich and, the most important thing, she was cool. She was at every party; parties were thrown for her. Always followed by boys but only surrounded by the hottest, most popular ones. She was such a bitch under that kind smile, one of those girls that know they can get whatever they want and, if they consider you won’t give them anything they want, they just ignore you.  
Niall, however, wasn’t what teenagers like to call popular. He used to walk down to the corridors without making a sound, trying to go unnoticed. His everyday was home-high school, high school-home. He was a polite boy, clever and a bit hyper. He wasn’t as big as Lee’s friends, but his face was still beautiful. Niall had bright blue eyes and red cheeks, his hair was blonde. He had a bent tooth until he got braces; transparent braces though. He was happy he got them.  
Niall and Lee were in the same class since they started high school, and it was their last year now. During those high school years, they hadn’t said more than ten words to each other,  
 _“Can I borrow you a pen?”_ She asked him once.  
And,  
 _“Sorry.”_ He muttered when they crashed in a corridor a few days before that Literature class.  
But it all changed when the Literature teacher, Mr. Elliot, assigned the partners for a project that lasted an entire term. When Niall heard his name next to Lee’s, he faced his notebook immediately to hide his blushed cheeks.  
“Lily Ann Fiddler and Niall Horan.” Mr. Elliot said, and a sarcastic giggle came out from Ronny’s mouth, causing Lee to hit his arm.  
Ronny was Lee’s guy best friend. He was the captain of the lacrosse team, an athletic guy with a little brain that always had a sarcastic comment for everything. This time he laughed because his Lily Ann had to work in the project with the most unpopular boy in high school.  
“Lee, if you don’t mind, Mr. Elliot.” She said politely, raising her hand first. The teacher nodded a couple of times and wrote some notes on his agenda.  
Lee turned around to look at Niall, who was effusively writing on his notebook and, with a sigh, she faced the teacher again.  
“Cameron Chapman and Kristen Wright.” Mr. Elliot said this time, causing Lee to feel a stab of jealousy in her stomach.  
“Ronny, if you don’t mind, Mr. Elliot.” He said, mimicking Lee. She stuck her tongue out, but her mind was still thinking about that couple.  
Kristen was something like Lee’s best friend, but she always hated her secretly. Kristen was everything she wasn’t; she was blonde, blue eyes, pink cheeks, sweet inside and out. Lee, however, had brunette hair, her eyes were so dark you couldn’t tell if it was her pupil or her iris, her skin was tanned and she was only sweet on the outside. And she also had something Lee hadn’t; Kristin had sex more than once with Ronny.  
Niall liked to call her _The Prada Girl_.  
When Mr. Elliot finished saying the groups, he told them to sit next to their partner. Lee glanced at Niall and considered that he wasn’t going to move, so with a big groan she took her backpack and pencil case and sat next to Niall.  
“Hi.” She smiled, and the boy raised his eyes to look at her for the first time.  
“Hello.” He replied, blushing a bit. Her dark eyes drove him crazy.  
 _“At least he is good looking.”_ She thought. _“He has a cute nose.” _  
As the teacher explained what they had to do Lee couldn’t stop looking at the couple her two best friends made. Ronny was holding the girl’s waist from behind and playing with her hair as she laughed softly.  
“Lily, which book do you want to pick for the project?” She heard Niall say and came back to Earth.  
“Sorry?”  
Niall stared at her deep eyes for a few seconds before answering, thinking that maybe having her as a partner wasn’t as good as he thought. She was hot and he liked her since his first high school year, but he wasn’t sure she would help him with the project. He knew she was intelligent, but she didn’t really care about grades.  
“I said which book do you want to pick for our project.” He repeated, frowning.  
“Call me Lee instead of Lily, ok?” The girl ignored him, turning her face to look again at Ronny and Kristen.  
Niall opened his mouth to say something but didn’t dare to, cursing his shyness. The fact that she ignored him bothered him, but there was something that didn’t fit. Usually, Lee was a polite and caring girl, the kind of girl that doesn’t ignore you without a reason. Maybe she was ignoring him because she didn’t want anything from him, not even a good mark on the project, but…  
Niall followed the girl’s eyes and saw Robby and Kristin flirting. He understood everything; Niall was the type of boy that doesn’t talk but sees things perfectly.  
“I always thought Lee was a man name.” Niall calmly said as he wrote on his notebook, causing Lee to turn and look at him, frowning. Now that he had her attention, he was ready to make his comment. “If you stop looking at those two with jealousy maybe we could start. This thing isn’t going to be easy. I really need you to help me. I do mind about grades.”  
Lee looked at him for a while and Niall stood her look. Finally, her expression relaxed and she let out a soft, musical giggle.  
Nobody ever dared to treat her like that, say things as they were; not even Ronny or Kristen. Everybody was scared of Lily Ann Fiddler but that little guy she had in front of her, wearing grey baggy sweatpants, a tight white shirt and a pair of also white sneakers. He had a dark blue cap resting over the left side of his table, next to the window. She liked that, she liked his determination and his glance, so she decided she was interested in him not only because she needed good grades, also because he was actually _interesting_.  
 _“My personal project.”_ She thought while staring at him and biting her pencil, not noticing Niall was starting to feel uncomfortable.  
“So, are you going to help me or what?” He asked, trying to hide his trembling voice and shaking hands.  
“Pride and Prejudice.” The girl answered his first question, causing Niall to groan. “What?”  
“That’s a girly book.” He replied. “Why don’t we choose On The Road? Or The Catcher in The Rye?”  
“Both of their authors are American.” Lee pointed out; their project had to be about a British book. Anyway, he was surprised by the fact she knew it and he didn’t. “And I am girly.”  
The boy growled again but didn’t say anything, and Lee smiled happy; Pride and Prejudice was one of her favorite books.  
“So, at your house or at mine?”  
Niall quickly glanced at her and his cheeks flushed, confused about the question.  
“For the project.” She cleared up things, amused but a bit creeped out by the fact that he thought she meant _other thing_.  
“Yours, if you don’t mind.” Niall mumbled. He knew his mum would go crazy if he took such a hot girl to his house; he didn’t use to invite anybody.  
“Great.” She smiled, and patted the boy’s arm. He stared at her hand resting over his arm, causing her to remove it quickly, feeling a bit awkward by his glance. What she didn’t know is that he was only staring at it because he found it beautiful. “So, see you tomorrow at 4PM in my house, alright?”  
Niall nodded and she wrote her address on a paper, giving it to him.  
“Hey, Lee…” Niall said shyly.  
“Yes?”  
“I am glad we…” The boy started to say slowly, not sure if he should or not, but the bell that proclaims the finish of the class rang and Lee got up from her chair immediately, picking up her stuff from the table and running towards Ronny, muttering a low ‘goodbye’ before leaving Niall alone, sitting on his chair. He finished the sentence to himself. “…Are together in this project.”__


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.  
Lee was at the football team of high school, and that same day she had a match. Niall never missed one; but any of the boys did. The boys’ matches were always full of people, both of guys and girls, even parents sometimes, but when the girls were playing, the crowd was only full by guys and some of the girls’ friends.  
But Niall also used to go watch them training. Everyday after school they had to train, and sometimes after lunch as well, so when Niall didn’t want to go to a class, he just skipped it and stayed at the field looking at the girls while studying or simply thinking. He used to sit at the top of the bleachers, pretending he wasn’t paying attention to them.  
Obviously, those matches weren’t as important as lacrosse ones (the masculine team of football wasn’t really popular either), but that day there was a lot of people. He looked at both of his sides and then grinned, the sun hurting his bright eyes. It was the second term of the year, and it was already starting to get hot.  
Niall moved to America with his mum when his dad died; she found a good job there and a beautiful house, but it was mostly because they needed a brand new start. They moved there from Ireland when Niall turned 14, and three years later he was a loser at high school and his mum was already dating another guy.  
He never was the coolest guy on school while they were living in Ireland, but he had a few good friends and he had fun. In America everything was way different from Ireland or even England, there everybody had a social class, and once you are on it, you can’t become more popular. But, of course, you can get less popular. When Niall first came to high school he was the new kid, and he stayed there forever. He even became less popular, because everybody is excited about the new kid, aren’t they?  
Most of the people there never remembered his name.   
All he wanted was to come back to Ireland and have his dad back. Every night he used to lay on bed and close his eyes, praying for something to happen, a miracle that gave him his old life back. Niall never believed in any god, but he was hopeless.  
“Let’s go, girls!” The coach yelled as the girls filled the field, the opposing team entering it from the other side.  
In America everybody plays sports. In the UK it’s a plus, but just a plus, not a must. So the first year Niall was at high school he entered the football team. When he lived in Ireland he used to play football with his friends, never in a team, but outside when the days were sunny. He was a fast runner and he was quite good at it, but he didn’t like the team. He tried with the lacrosse team after that, but he didn’t get admitted. He was fast enough for lacrosse, but not strong enough –it was also because Ronny was the captain of it and he never liked Niall.  
Anyway, Niall liked the guitar and singing lessons much more. When he gave up with sports he accidentally found the room 102 at the end of a corridor nobody ever goes to. He opened the door and found his relief.  
The room would have been empty if it wasn’t because of the two chairs in the middle of it with two people sitting on them. Niall said sorry and was about to leave when a beautiful woman, not much older than 20 years, told him to stay. Her name was Barbara and she imparted guitar and singing classes with his friend Jack, but _‘call me Jagger_ ’.  
Jagger was a genius with guitar. Niall admired him, but at the same time he was jealous. He was jealous because he was everything Niall wasn’t, and also because Barbara was madly in love with him. He thought Jagger was stupid for not seeing it, and, if he ever saw it, for not doing anything about it. Niall always thought Barbara had the voice and the face of an angel. Everything she did was smooth, elegant, soft, kind, caring, _perfect_. She was the only girl in the whole America that treated him like that, like he actually had talent and like she actually trusted in him, supporting him in everything. Jagged also supported him 100%. During those years, for Niall, Jagger and Barbara were the best people on Earth.  
“Let’s smash it, girls.” Lee said, jumping around and getting ready.  
Lee never was one of those girls who are afraid of braking a nail and scream when they see an insect. She never listened to Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift, or watched Pretty Little Liars; she never read Twilight. She wasn’t a cheerio as all the hot girls are, but she was always the queen of the dance.  
Lee was different, but only a few knew it. Niall always suspected it, that was why he found her so interesting. And that was _exactly_ what was going to make them chase each other until they collided, scratching a deep wound in them that would stay for long. But they didn’t know it yet.  
If you had told them that day, at the field, what was about to happen between them, they would have laughed. _Everybody_ would have laughed.  
 _“That could never happen.”_  
Niall watched the entire match quietly, not celebrating any of the goals or clapping. He was there only to see hot girls playing sports, like almost everybody. Unfortunately, they lost the match. Lee was fuming, yelling to the referee and questioning the way he acted during the match. Lee was competitive and she wasn’t used to lose.  
But Niall thought she was looking beautiful, her hair in a messy ponytail, some locks fastened to her cheeks, forehead and neck with sweat. Her cheeks were red by the effort and anger. Her eyes were even more sparkling and that tight t-shirt made her bust more prominent.  
She looked wild, and Niall loved it. He loved it so much he got up and, with a ‘You can do it’ in his mind, decided to get closer to her and tell her it was a great match although they lost. But the place was crowded and it was hard to get closer to her, so when he finally descried Lee she was talking to Ronny. He could hear their conversation,  
“Are you coming to my house tomorrow?” He said, a hand resting at the end of her back. “It’ll be just you and I, my parents aren’t at home.”  
“I am not sure, Ronny, I told Niall to come to my house so we could start our project.”  
“Who’s Niall?”  
Of course, how could anybody remember who’s Niall.  
Lee looked at him and giggled, getting closer to Ronny and pecking his jaw line. Ronny was much taller than her, and they looked really good together. Hot.  
Niall got closer to hear what she was saying.  
“The boy in our Literature class, we’re doing the project together.”  
“Ah, The Loser.”  
That felt like a stab for Niall. During those years he tried to become immune to that kind of comments, but they were still painful. He clenched his jaws and kept listening.  
“I could tell him that I have other things to do… Helping my mum with something, I don’t know.” Lee shrugged, and then smirked. “I would rather do that, to be honest.”  
That was too much for him. He didn’t want to listen anymore, so he started to walk away, crashing onto one of the players. She looked at him and raised her eyebrows.  
“Look where you step, loser!” She shouted to him, and then turned around like she never saw him.  
Niall stepped short, his breathing quick and heavy. He tried to calm himself down, but the words of Ronny, Lee and that girl were in his mind. Ronny was as nice as always, Lee showed her actual nature, and the girl simply forgot about him just by the second she saw him.  
He was tired of walking away and pretending nothing happened, so he turned around and dodged everybody but that girl he bumped onto before, hitting her harder this time. He stepped in front of Ronny and Lee.  
“Hey, Lee, if you want to go to this asshole’s house to fuck with him or whatever just tell me, but don’t lie to me because I am not that stupid.”  
Niall knew that was going to have consequences -Ronny could throw him into the trash, maybe make him get a black eye- but in that moment he didn’t care. He felt adrenaline rushing through his body and he loved it.  
He walked towards the room 102 and slammed the door, taking one of the guitars that were resting over the wall and starting to play the strings. He didn’t notice Barbara was there until he finished playing.  
“You just keep improving your guitar skills, Niall.” She smiled, sitting in front of him. “Jack will be really happy with you.”  
Barbara never called him as _Jagger_. She thought it was stupid and vain.  
“He must be, I am his only student.”  
“Had a rough day?” She always knew Niall’s mood by only seeing him.  
“A horrible day.” The boy confessed. “This place sucks.”  
“Let’s leave it, then. I’ll invite you to a muffin at Starbucks.”  
Niall left the guitar against the wall and watched her get up, showing off her beautiful figure without even noticing. He licked his lip and smirked.  
“Is this a date, though?” He teased. “Because I forgot my condoms.”  
Barbara’s jaw dropped and she looked at him shocked, thinking he was being serious; she was quite gullible. But when Niall started to laugh she blushed and pushed him gently, shaking her head.  
“You are a little horny boy.”  
And Niall smiled, rounding her waist with an arm. She grabbed his hand and held it again one of her sides as they walked out from the high school. Niall would love to have sex with her because ‘I mean, who wouldn’t’ but, by then, he was really happy she was simply his only friend.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.  
Niall’s plans for a Friday night were staying at his neighbours’ house to babysit their daughter. They were a young couple that used to go out basically every Friday and Saturday, and they decided to hire Niall as their child’s babysitter. Niall accepted it; he had nothing better to do and they paid him really well.  
Niall had been babysitting Rachel for 2 years, and they really liked each other. Niall loved the girl, she was utterly cute and very naughty, but she was helplessly in love with him -as in love as an 8 years old girl can be- and counted down the days for the weekend. Every time Niall walked into her house, she ran towards him and hugged him effusively. Nowadays, years after that Friday night, she is a beautiful young girl and she still thinks about Niall as her first crush. But when she tells people, even her friends laugh and shake their heads incredulously,  
“ _Niall Horan_ was your babysitter?” They always say. Not many girls are that lucky.

But yes, there he was, just like every weekend, Rachel never lied. The couple left and gave him a few instructions, the same they always told him: she has to eat all the vegetables, she can’t go to sleep too late, don’t let her eat too much chocolate, tell her a story before going to sleep. Niall liked to do other thing to calm down that hyper lady, anyway. He usually sang her to sleep; it was much better than telling her a story -her mother always told him that she would love to call him every night to make that evil creature sleep- although she always asked for another one.  
Her favourite one was Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles, she loved the way Niall said ‘little darling’.  
“Let’s go cook our dinner, Rach.”  
The girl’s name was Rachel, and everybody called her Rachel, but Niall liked Rach better.  
He lifted the little body by the waist and sat her over the table as he took the cookware out from the cupboard drawer, reading the post-it that Christina -Rachel’s mother- had fastened over the worktop.  
 _Fried eggs and beans._  
He groaned when he read it, thinking that the last one was going to be difficult to make her eat it. Rachel always hated vegetables, but she couldn’t even look at beans.  
Niall was cooking dinner and feeling her dark green eyes focused on the back of his head, the couple of short legs hanging from the table and swinging happily. And as he cooked, he thought about his very, very long day.  
“Why are you so grumpy, Niall?” A high voice said behind him. He turned around to look at the girl and that was when he noticed he was frowning.  
“I had a bad day at High School, nothing to worry about.”  
He was frying the first egg when the oil jumped from the pan and burned his hand, causing him to curse in a low voice and place his hand under the water of a faucet. The fried egg turned into a dry-burned egg.  
“Did someone make you cry?”  
“No, nobody made me cry.” He giggled, placing the egg on a dish. Rachel smiled wide, happy about it. She hated when kids from school made her cry. “But I have to do a project with someone and I am worried about it.”  
Niall used to tell everything to the little girl, and she always listened carefully. She loved Niall’s stories although they never were interesting, only ranting about high school and his guitar classes. Rachel also loved when he talked about girls, the way Niall described them was adorable.  
Both of them still remember when Niall told her that his father died. The girl cried her heart out and hugged him for years, murmuring the best thing that nobody has ever told him about it,  
 _“I can lend you mine.”_  
That was when he decided the 8 years old was going to be like his little sister. And that was also when she decided Niall was going to be his elder brother until she had the right age to date him –about 10 years in her opinion.  
“Who is that person?” She asked.  
“A girl in my class.”  
“And how does she look like? Is she pretty?” She leaned forward, almost falling from the table just to be able to hear him properly over the sizzle of the oil.  
“She is fuckable.” Niall replied, that time he wasn’t really into describing her in his usual adorable way. He didn’t say anything about her burning eyes or her mouth -which he always thought that would taste like watermelon-, he didn’t talk about the sound of her voice and her white smile. He was mad. “Very fuckable.”  
“What does _fuckable_ mean?” Rachel asked, smiling innocently. The boy chuckled and placed the other egg on another dish, adding the beans.  
“It means _really pretty._ ” He answered, and he wasn’t actually lying.  
He put the dishes over the table and took a jar of water out from the fridge, two glasses and two forks. He also took a can of beer and drank from it.  
“Am I fuckable, Niall?”  
The boy almost choked on the beer when he heard those words coming out from her little mouth, and when he recovered from the shock he let out an amused chuckle. He stared at her; she had two round and amazingly big green eyes, her lips were red and her skin pink. She had cute little teeth and her light brown hair falling down her child shoulders looked like snakes.  
She was definitely going to be a heartbreaker.  
“You will be in a few years.” He replied, causing her to frown, looking deeply hurt. “It is only for older women, Rach, you are still too young.”  
The girl nodded but she was still looking hurt. Niall lifted her up again and sat her on the chair, in front of her beans. Her face cringed in disgust as he started to chew happily, he was proud of his work.  
“You know you have to eat that.”  
“No, please.” Rachel cried out, her round eyes starting to sparkle. “I hate them. I hate my mom.”  
“Hey, don’t say that, you love your mom, she is amazing.”  
But the girl was already pouting and the fake tears were about to fall down her cheeks, so Niall just took her plate without saying anything and dropped the beans in his.  
“I love you, Niall.” She sang.  
“I love you too, Rach.” He replied, smiling warmly. “But you won’t go to sleep late today.”  
The girl didn’t go to sleep late that night, but just because she didn’t actually go to sleep. She fell asleep next to Niall, his arms holding her short torso, peacefully going up and down as he tried to keep his eyes opened but failed, the sleep winning the battle against both of them.

 

However, for Lee, Friday nights weren’t like that.  
She used to go out both Friday and Saturday to the coolest parties in town, drink alcohol and smoke weed. Whenever she went to clubs every boy tried to take her home, but not many were lucky. She danced with everybody, flirted with everybody, let everybody invite her to drinks… But just because she liked to tease. Lee knew everybody and everybody knew Lee. She had sex with the 70% of the school and snogged the 100%; both boys and girls.   
But deep inside her she hated that. Of course she liked to go out and she loved when people looked at her, but she wasn’t proud of her behavior. She knew what people said in her back, and she never heard a single good thing apart from,  
 _“She is the hottest girl in High School.”_  
She didn’t care about it at all. Sometimes, Lee wished she was a normal girl that only a few boys turn to look at. But what she wanted the most was to have someone to talk to when she came back home from a party, or simply from High School.  
She remembers coming back home after the worst day ever, drunk and high, crying, and going upstairs to lay on her bed for hours with a whisky bottle she stole from her mother’s minibar. She remembers how her mind slowly switched off until it entered into an ethyl coma. The next thing she remembers is that she woke up at the hospital and her parents never asked about it.  
They never cared about her at all.   
But that Friday night was different and she was really happy. Ronny and her were going to stay at his house for the night, alone. She was wearing her favourite clothes and she carefully put her make up on, trying to look pretty but not too you-tried-quite-hard.  
She checked if she had condoms in her wallet before leaving her house and driving her dad’s car.  
Lee had been in love with Ronny since the first year of High School. He was the first person to talk to her, and he was the most charming boy she ever saw. She immediately fell for his hazel eyes and dreamt about his lips each night. However, the boy never saw her like that. He knew she was in love with him, and he loved making her jealous –especially with Kristen- and drool over him. Ronny wasn’t a good guy; he always liked to play with girls.  
“Baby, you look stunning.”  
Lee’s cheeks turned lightly pink and her eyes looked at him suggestively.  
“You don’t look bad yourself.”  
Lee wouldn’t have gone to his house if she knew what was waiting for her there. When she saw the wavy, golden hair she felt anger stuck in her throat, scratching to go out. The blonde head turned to look at them and an amazingly beautiful and kind smile curved her lips as she waved with one hand.  
“Lee!” She got up and walked towards her doing little jumps; Kristen was the most happy and sweet girl in this world. “I was waiting for you, I can’t choose a film with Ronny. He doesn’t like anything I do and I don’t like anything he does, so…”  
“Oh, what a shame.”  
Kristen took Lee by her waist and dragged her to the couch, forcing her to sit next to her and showing on TV all the movies they could watch by connecting it to Ronny’s computer.  
And the boy was watching both of them from a careful distance, standing next to a very big table with dead flowers in the middle, and enjoying it. Kristen was so innocent she could never notice, but Ronny -he was the opposite of innocent- was definitely noticing: Lee was quite annoyed by the fact that Kristen was there. Actually, he did it on purpose; he loved to tease and make the brunette girl get jealous. He enjoyed seeing her defiant eyes glaring at him from time to time and her dark polished nails scratching her own fingerprints trying not to let out all the mean words that she had in mind. Because Lee _always_ had a lot of mean things to say.  
They finally picked a horror film, and the name is irrelevant because I bet none of them knew it. And it was because none of them were actually watching it.  
Ronny and Kristen were too busy teasing each other under the blanket, playing with each other’s fingers as Ronny tried to slide his hand under the girl’s cheerio skirt -she only took off the cheerio uniform to go out at night, she was too proud of what she was-, who barely stopped him. Otherwise, Lee was too busy acting like she wasn’t noticing about anything and chewing popcorn like crazy.  
“Oh my God, it is scary, isn’t it?” Kristen sometimes said between giggles.  
“Yes, you look pretty scared.” And introduced another big amount of popcorn into her mouth.  
The couple eventually left the room for _‘just a moment’_ , Lee staying alone in there with a screen showing murdered people and screams. She was fuming, not knowing what was happening there was driving her crazy, so she got up and pressed her ear to Ronny’s bedroom door. She heard giggles and sharp movements at first, then becoming into moans and deep groans.  
Now she was fuming. They left her alone to have sex. That was just great.  
Lee wondered if she should burst into the room and yell or maybe leave. She decided the second one was better and left the house, taking her coat and slamming the door to make the loudest noise, but of course they didn’t notice.  
It was a cold March night though the sun was completely bright in the morning, and Lee walked quickly down the streets to nowhere, fighting down the tears of anger that were about to fall from the corner of her eyes.  
“Fucking asshole. Hope she gets pregnant and fat and ugly.” She was hissing in a whisper, her dark eyes burning.   
She thought about calling someone but, as strange as it seems, Lee Fiddler didn’t have anybody to talk. Ronny and Kristen were her only _true_ friends.   
“What a fucking lie everything is.”  
She put her hands in her pockets and touched something into them, a paper. It was Niall’s number. She thought about him, how she cancelled –well, he cancelled it, but it was her fault- the project “date”. She kept walking while biting her lower lip, wondering if she should phone. Two minutes later, he was answering the phone,  
“Yeah? Who is this?” Niall had a pronounced Irish accent and his voice sounded huskier than usual. Both things together made Lee get a strange shiver, weirdly feeling attracted to him.  
Besides, Niall, at Rachel’s house, was blushing and his hands were shaking. He was eager to know why on Earth was the fittest girl in high school calling him.  
“It’s Lee.” She didn’t say her surname, she was sure Niall knew. “Did I wake you up or something?”  
“No… well, yeah… kinda.” He stuttered.  
“But it’s 11PM… and Friday.” She let out a soft chuckle and Niall blushed even more.  
“I am babysitting my neighbour and I fell asleep in the couch.”  
Just then he felt Rachel lazily moving next to him and cursed; he had to take her to the bedroom immediately, but she looked too sweet to move her. Her little hand wrapped around Niall’s arm and he smiled, setting the blanket to cover her entire body.  
“Niall? Are you there?”  
“Yes, yeah, sorry.” He said. “What happens?”  
“I was wondering…do you think you could come to my house on Sunday? To start the project?” She asked, and Niall nodded. Then, he noticed she couldn’t see it and said yes around ten times. “Alright. See you on Sunday, Niall.”  
Niall hang up his mobile phone and lied on the couch, thinking about how good that sounded coming from her mouth and falling asleep again with one arm around Rachel’s short body. Lee, however, kept walking until she reached a night club and entered it without waiting in the queue, she simply talked to the bodyguard for a few minutes and he let her in with a wink. She woke up at some guy’s house in the middle of the night and left without making any kind of noise.  
That night both of them, Niall and Lee, dreamt about the following Sunday for no reason.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.  
Niall was surprised by Lee’s house, he felt uncomfortable even by looking at it.  
He took a bus that stopped at a residential part of the city with a house after the other one, each one rounded by thick, tall shrubberies that were carefully pruned in squares. They had gates made by beautiful iron figures, and if you looked through them you could see green grass and a big house painted in smooth colours. But Niall refused to look through the gates; the third time he did a dog appeared and slammed against the gate, fighting to open it and eat him, so he avoided them and only looked at the numbers of the houses, searching for the 45.  
He finally found it and took a deep breath before ringing the bell. He waited until the door did a soft crack and opened by itself, inviting him to come in. He glanced at both of his sides first to check if there was a furious dog there. Nothing in the garden.  
“Lee is in the shower.” A young boy opened the door and looked at him from his head to his feet. “She told me to ask you if you want to stay with me while she’s showering. If you don’t, you can go upstairs and wait for her in her bedroom.”

The way the boy spoke and his dark indifferent eyes told Niall that he was Lee’s brother without any kind of doubt. He didn’t wait for him to answer, he just walked into the house expecting Niall to follow him or maybe hoping him to stay at the door like the dog they didn’t have.  
Later he got to know that his name was Hunter, he was 16 years old and he went to their same high school, though he had never seen him. If you stared at him carefully you could see he had the same facial features as Lee: straight nose, thick and delineated red lips, tanned skin and big dark eyes, so dark the pupil and the iris melt with each other and give a rough but beautiful trait to their expressions. His jaw was more pronounced, though.  
The boy had a deep racial beauty that made people shiver, just like Lee.  
“Will you stare at me all day or will you join me?” Hunter asked, referring to the X-Box game he was playing.  
“I think I’ll stare at you until your sister comes out from the shower.”  
“Are you gay?” The boy asked without looking at him, he was too busy on the screen.  
Niall glared at a picture of Lee in summer that was over the TV, wearing a bikini and a straw hat. Hunter’s eyes followed Niall’s and the last one shook his head.  
“No, I don’t think so.” He said, causing the boy to laugh.  
“Then you must be afraid I’ll beat you up.”  
“Is that Call of Duty?” Niall asked, sitting in the edge of the sofa. Hunter nodded with a smirk on his lips. “The last one?”  
“Modern Warfare 3.” He replied, proud.  
“Then you should be afraid.”  
With that he sat next to Hunter, taking the remote left.  
Niall never was a shy boy, he was funny and kind and likable, but nobody gave him the chance to show his charm. When he first came into high school he tried to make friends, but everybody there looked at him in disgust because they already had their own friends and didn’t want any other. Things were perfect just like that; nobody wanted a new kid.  
Teenagers are cruel, and American teenagers even more.  
That was why he was more comfortable around younger people, because they didn’t know him. They just heard a weird accent on him, but none of them knew he was the loser kid that came from Ireland and ate alone at the canteen everyday.  
And that was why Hunter didn’t care at all about who was Niall as long as he knew how to play Call of Duty.  
Niall finally won, though it was a hard game. The boy nodded a couple of times, impressed, and then looked at him. Niall smiled; at least Lee’s brother liked him.  
“You are the first person to beat me.” He confessed.  
“You are not the first person I beat.” Niall joked, causing the boy to let out a loud noise, something like a howl of pain that turned into a laugh. Niall smirked proudly. “Isn’t your sister taking too much to get out from the shower?”  
“Don’t worry, she makes boys wait for her to get out from the shower almost everyday.” Hunter replied, his eyes rolling back. “Especially her friend Ronny. He sits here and tries to be funny, and he always loses against me.” He said, referring to the game. “He’s an asshole.”  
Niall was about to agree when he heard Lee’s voice behind him, going downstairs. He turned to look at her and swallowed; she never looked so beautiful. She wasn’t wearing anything special, a basic t-shirt and short grey sweatpants, but her wet hair reaching down her breasts made her look beautiful; the boy though she could be a mermaid. She wasn’t wearing any make up either, and Niall considered it made her even more pretty, allowing him to see her eyes just like they were.  
Scary, proud, unkind, rough, _beautiful_.  
“I always thought you liked Ronny.” She said slowly as she walked downstairs, talking to her brother.  
“He thinks he’s cool and hot.” Hunter replied. “He thinks he’s cooler and hotter than me, and that’s literally impossible.”  
Niall noticed just in that moment that Hunter, since he was a boy, could say everything he wanted to and nobody would ever think it was out of place, in fact they would laugh at his cockiness, think he’s a great guy. However, Lee couldn’t. Being a girl means you have to be lady, and if you’re not a lady, you are a slut -at least when you’re a teenager-, and Lee didn’t want to be a slut, so she had to act nice and kind in front of everybody while thinking about plenty of rude things, those things her brother could say out loud. That always made her feel kind of jealous.  
“Let’s go to my bedroom.” Lee told Niall in a very rough way, but he didn’t care at all, the sentence sounded too well to not obey.  
Lee’s room was full of posters of different bands, from Nirvana to McFly, going through Aerosmith, Blink 182 and The Beatles. She had a double bed that looked soft and comfortable with a little teddy over the pillow. That made Niall smile, and she sat on the edge of her bed, staring at him, staring at how he stared.  
And _wow_ , she got that feeling again. She knew what it was, she knew she felt mightily attracted to him, but she tried to control it. She tried, yes, she did, but all she could see was his blue eyes. How they flew from a place of her room to another, and she wanted to follow them but they had deeply caught her attention, like fire in Christmas.  
They suddenly landed over a guitar that was resting against a wall, at one corner of the room. He stared at it for a long time and a slow smile curved his slim lips, causing Lee to smile too. And when his eyes rapidly moved to look at her she came back to Earth, to her bedroom, and set the rough, proud expression again.  
Too late, though, Niall already noticed that, in that moment, it was Lee who was staring at him. That made him smile wider and asked,  
“Do you play guitar?”  
Lee shook her head.  
“I tried two years ago, but my fingers are too clumsy.” She confessed. “I never really liked it, I have to admit.”  
Niall nodded and kept staring at the guitar, standing in the middle of the room without saying anything. Lee started to feel awkward though the boy seemed completely comfortable, and felt obliged to speak,  
“You play guitar, don’t you?”  
“Yeah!, yeah, I do. I quite like it.” He replied seconds later, smiling.  
“And are you good at it?”  
“I think so.” He giggled, sitting in the opposite side of the bed. Then, looked at her. “Do you want to…” But cut himself off; she definitely didn’t want to hear _Niall Horan_ playing guitar. Who wants? “We should start the project. How are we going to structure it?”  
I would lie if I said that both boy and girl were feeling comfortable in that room, and I would love to say that they quickly get on very well and felt like they had the same ideas, the same way of thinking, but I can’t lie to you. I have to tell things how they exactly happened, without missing a single detail, and I have to warn you that Niall and Lee never understood each other, especially while they were dating. They had quite different minds, quite different wishes.  
They started fighting in the moment that Niall asked,  
“Who do you think that’s Pride and who do you think that’s Prejudice?”  
“Oh, it’s obvious that him, Mr. Darcy, is Pride, and Elisabeth is Prejudice.” She answered. The boy frowned. “What? During the entire book Elisabeth keeps saying that he’s too proud, but she prejudges him all the time. He is a proud man, but not a bad one as she thinks. That is prejudice.”  
“Mr. Darcy doesn’t want to tell Elisabeth that he loves her because her family is lame, but he doesn’t even know them. _That_ is prejudice.” The boy said slowly, causing Lee to shake her head repeatedly.  
“You are wrong. I know I am right, I have read this book thousand of times.”  
They looked straight to each other for a few seconds before Niall shrugged, turning his eyes to his notebook again. But if Lee had listened close enough she would have heard the low words that flew out from Niall’s mouth,  
“ _You_ definitely are Pride.”  
What Niall didn’t know is that he definitely was _Prejudice_. He was sure that he knew everything about Lee and her eyes full of _pride_ , he was sure that he could tell every fake smile she drew on her lips and that he knew what really was on her mind. But he didn’t know a single thing, at least not yet.  
Right then, for example, he wasn’t noticing at all that the beautiful girl was staring at him from the corner of her deep eyes, slowly and unknowingly falling for his body and soul.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.  
Niall and Lee not only shared one class, Literature, they also shared Biology, which they had everyday but Wednesdays. They didn’t have Literature on Wednesdays either, so for Niall, and with time, also for Lee, Wednesdays were boring and non sense days.  
“You have to choose someone for a week project.” Mrs. Miller, the Biology teacher, said. She hadn’t said what was it going to be about yet, but you could already hear people agreeing to be together in whispers and knowing looks. “You’ll have exactly four classes, which are four entire hours, to do it. I think that’s more than enough, isn’t it?” I was, but it made Niall sigh anyway. Mrs. Miller kept talking. “You are going to study facial expressions and reactions towards different kinds of simulations. You’ll have to do some research and test what you found on your partner, how their face expresses sadness, fear, excitement, happiness… Did you understand it?” Everybody nodded, their faces definitely expressing excitement for the different project they had to do; everybody but Niall. “Form the couples, then.”  
The whole class got up at the same time, causing World War III in seconds, Mrs. Miller begging the kids to stay quiet. Niall waited sitting in his chair, not expecting anybody to sit next to him. Niall was always the one left without a classmate to work with, and he usually had to work alone or with the weird guy of the class; weird _even_ for him.  
That was why he was scared when he felt someone energetically sitting next to him, and slowly moved his head to glare at that one person. He was genuinely surprised when he saw Poppy, her hair as red as the flower that gave her name.  
“Hello.” She smiled kindly, placing her book and pencil case over the table. “Hope you don’t mind that I sit here.”  
“No, of course I don’t.” He replied immediately.  
“Great.” She smiled again, because Poppy always wore a smile, no matter what she was saying, feeling or thinking.  
Niall looked further to her for the first time.  
She had a small and thin body that couldn’t stop moving, her long, red hair blowing with every movement. Her skin was as pale as Niall’s, maybe even more, and her cheeks and -quite little- nose crowded by freckles. She had round, big eyes surrounded by blonde eyelashes -something that always made her feel a bit accomplished, she wished she had beautifully long and dark eyelashes. Her mouth was also little, as everything in her anatomy, but her lips were thick and perfectly delineated, forming a perfect heart.  
Niall thought she looked like a fairy and wondered if, as J.M. Barrie wrote in his worldwide known novel Peter Pan, she had to be good or bad because _“Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.”_  
“I’m glad we’re doing this together.” Poppy said then, and Niall decided that she was good. Immediately after, she rolled her eyes. “Imagine you would have to do this with Lee as well, like in Literature.”  
“What’s so bad about that?”  
“Are you joking?” She half-yelled, half-laughed. “She’s a _harpy._ ”  
The comment and the giggle right after made Niall’s decision wobble, but it also made him smile, causing the girl to gasp.  
“You smiled!” She screamed, immediately opening the book and passing the pages quickly. “That means…” her small index finger caressed the page where they explained everything about human reactions to different kind of stimulus, her green eyes eating the words. “That means that you are happy, that you just heard something funny, or that you don’t dislike me as much as I thought.”  
Niall frowned as she raised her eyes to look at him, blinking twice.  
“What made you think that?” He asked, confused.  
“You haven’t said a word and I’m here talking and talking while you look at me like I’m crazy.” She shrugged, never looking away.  
“Well… you are wrong.” Niall smiled again, bigger this time, and shrugged as well. “I like you.”  
Both of them noticed how awkward that sentence was, but didn’t say anything about it. Poppy seemed quite happy about it, so Niall’s cheeks only blushed a bit.  
Anyway, he was still curious about why did the girl decide to sit next to him, instead of any of her multiple friends. Poppy, with her natural charm and carefree character, had many friends and was usually told to leave the classroom because of her constant talking or laughing.  
So he asked her, and she blushed,  
“I was kind of distracted and my friends already chose a partner.” She confessed, causing Niall to frown a bit, and she immediately spoke, “I don’t mean I didn’t want to sit next to you. I also like you.”  
This time the two of them blushed.  
“What were you doing?” Niall asked, both because he was interested and because he wanted to get out from the awkward situation. Poppy looked very happy that he asked her.  
“I was drawing. Do you want to see it?” Before Niall could nod, she was already showing him the paper inked in black.  
Niall took it between his fingers and stared at it, it was brilliant. She drew it without erasing anything, she turned every mistake she made into something to finally create a woman peacefully sitting on a straw chair next to a window that showed nothing through it, but she was looking at nothing anyway.  
“Wow.” Niall mumbled.  
“Do you like it?” She smiled wide. “It’s not finished, though, I still need to draw something in the window…but don’t know what.”  
“I think it’s perfect like that.”  
The girl looked at Niall again, who was still focused on the drawing, and smiled for herself. She was _really_ glad they were doing that class work together… but she wouldn’t if she knew how much Niall was going to hurt her in the future without pretending it.  
“Hey! You know what? I’m half Irish.” She said while he was still looking at the drawing, and his eyes moved to hers, staring at her quite evident Irish features. “Does that make us compatriots and of course friends?”  
Niall smiled wide and her lively eyes got happy.  
“I guess so.”

 

However, in that same room but sitting on different chairs Ronny and Lee weren’t doing well.  
He sat next to her though she didn’t ask him to, and didn’t say a word to him. The boy kept talking and joking to make Lee’s rough face smile, but her gelid eyes were unwavering and hurting. Ronny wasn’t sure about what he did to make her act that way, but it was starting to annoy him and Lee was starting to enjoy it.  
“Is something wrong, Lee?” Ronny asked then, erasing his stupid smile. “Did something happen?”  
The girl slowly raised her eyes to look at him with her most indifferent eyes; those that made people shiver in fear and stutter, and stared at him for endless seconds. If Ronny had listened closer, he would have heard an ironic chuckle escape her half-opened mouth, but Ronny was too stupid to even notice.  
“Let me ask you something, Ronny.” Lee, and Ronny nodded lightly, swallowing. “Did you two notice that I left? Last Friday?”  
The strong boy glared at her while frowning, but his face slowly relaxed and his lips curled up into a smirk, suddenly making Lee feel weak against him. Lee hated feeling weak.  
“So you are just jealous.” He chuckled, shaking his head in amusement. He grabbed her chin with two big fingers. “Little Lee is jealous of Kristin.”  
“Don’t touch me.” She immediately replied, slapping his hand to make him remove it, but it only made him smirk wider. “I am not jealous of Kristin, she is my best friend.”  
“Is she?” The boy teased.  
“Yes. Yes, she is. And you too.” Both of them felt that Lee was trying to convince herself, not Ronny. “And since you two are my best friends it was rude leaving me alone at your fucking house.”  
“You could have joined, you know I’m always open to that.”  
Ronny never cared about anybody’s feelings. He was a cold-hearted person, an actual one, not like Lee. And those comments deeply hurt her, causing her to wonder how and why did she like the dumb guy in front of her so much.  
Maybe it was because she didn’t have anybody else; maybe it was because didn’t know anybody else.  
“Fuck you, Ronny.” She spat very clearly, looking at him in disgust. “Fuck you.”  
Lee looked away and lowly groaned, her fingers running her own hair as she felt Ronny’s eyes fixed in her nape and his smirk still showing his egocentric character. Her gaze flew to the two people sitting three tables before them and the sight of Niall quietly and fluently talking to Poppy only made her feel even worse.  
Or even more jealous, as Ronny would have said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.  
Through nights like that one Niall felt miserable, lying flat over his bed with his wide open eyes fixed on the white roof of his bedroom. And the fact that Poppy was so nice to him, the fact that he had lunch with her and her friends the past three days and also that same Thursday, didn’t help. Neither did the fact that, just three hours ago before that sad night, he came back from Lee’s house.  
Through nights like that Niall just felt miserable, impotent… He needed someone.  
When Niall came back home the sky was already dark and his stomach was craving for food, but when he opened the door he saw his mother putting eyeliner on and frowned, dropping his school bag on the floor.  
“Where are you going?”

She didn’t reply; she didn’t want to answer, or maybe she didn’t hear it. She was too busy trying to make herself look pretty and younger.  
Niall looked closer at her; she was wearing heels and a black skirt combined with a white blouse and a black and gold jacket, her dyed hair furled into a messy bun and her cheeks lightly covered with blusher.  
“Mom, where are you going?” He repeated, and she seemed to hear it that time.  
“I… I am going to have dinner with someone. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.” She answered.  
Niall frowned again and rested his back over a wall, looking to the woman in front of him and feeling a stab of jealousy -he wasn’t sure why- on the pit of his stomach. He threw his head back until it touched the wall and bit his lower lip, not sure if he should ask what was in his mind.  
But he finally did,  
“Is it a date?” He murmured. His mom looked at him through the mirror for a second and then turned around.  
“Yes, it is, Niall.” She replied, her eyes looking very serious for a moment and then turning sweet again. “I made you dinner, it’s chicken and rice, you just have to put it into the microwave for three or four minutes, ok?”  
“Ok.”  
The boy sat on the sofa and turned TV on, changing the channels quickly without even looking at them.  
He knew his dad died almost four years ago, but he still couldn’t see his mother with any other man. He hated the man they moved with, Bill, when they came to America. He was impolite and gross, his shirt always showing sweat dots on his armpits and his teeth biting a toothpick. He looked like a truck driver, and he acted like a truck driver. His mom never believed him and used to tell him that Bill was a good man, but had to tell her son that he was right months after, when she realized that Bill was a hideous man.  
The idea of her having dinner with another man, no matter his manners, height, breed or job, disgusted him. And he couldn’t hold back asking,  
“What about Dad?”  
The woman’s hand stopped in the air, still holding the eyeliner, and slowly turned to look at Niall, who was sitting on the sofa looking steadily at the screen. If we had listened close enough to both of them we could have heard their hearts racing and their breathings increasing like crazy, feeling the tension in the room.  
“He wouldn’t mind, Niall.” She sweetly said, getting closer to her son. “He would be happy, Niall, because he was happy when I was.” Her voice broke and Niall noticed, but didn’t do anything about it. He feared he could go weak too in the moment he opened his mouth. “Unluckily he isn’t here anymore, and I am sorry I can’t ensure you he is up there taking care of us, but if he is… I bet he is smiling right now.”  
Niall closed his eyes and took a deep breath as his mom placed a kiss over his head, taking her bag and keys. She turned around to look at him for the last time before leaving the house and Niall alone.  
“I love you too, Mom.” The boy whispered, getting up and walking towards the kitchen to cook his chicken and rice.  
And there was Niall, lying on his bed after eating his tasteless dinner, staring at the roof. Warm tears were silently falling from the edge of his eyes as he breathed a peaceful agony. He wished he could close his eyes and let the fatigue captivate him, but his eyes were fixed in some point above his inert body, only his blinking and his fingers rubbing hard against each other telling that he was alive.  
That _someone_ Niall needed was his dad.  
“I miss you…” He whispered, shutting his eyes hard and letting the pain fill his chest.  
And he remembered that day when he came back to school and saw his mom sitting at the kitchen, her eyes swollen and her cheeks furrowed by tears. He immediately ran towards her and asked what was wrong, and the woman collapsed while hugging her child, looking ten years older.  
He revived every long night like that one at his old bed, every scream and every silent tear, the terror in the pit of his stomach whenever he saw his mother looking at him without seeing anything, how much he hated when people at school talked to him in pity. How hard it was when they moved to America, every fight they had, though his mom told him thousands of times that it would be amazing and that they would be happy again, just the two of them.  
Happy. Again. The two of them.  
Niall chuckled.  
“Yeah, sure.” He mumbled and threw his hands to his eyes, rubbing them.  
His phone next to his waist buzzed, but he didn’t check it. He was sure it was Poppy, he knew she was worried about him because they talked minutes ago, but he didn’t feel like talking anymore. But if he had checked it, he would have seen that the name on the screen wasn’t Poppy’s. It was someone else, someone who did need to talk and had nobody.

 

Lee was impatiently waiting for her phone to buzz with Niall’s reply because, through nights like that one, she felt impotent, crawling into her bed, her eyes hard shut and her hands covering her ears to not hear the screams. And the fact that she was ok with Ronny again, that everything was fine between them, didn’t help. Neither did the fact that the cute blond boy left her house 3 hours ago. Through nights like that, Lee felt impotent, miserable; she needed it to stop.  
When she first heard the yells she tried not to care and keep reading, but that night was too much. Lee’s parents used to fight every single night, yell to each other that they didn’t feel love anymore. And it was horrible, she couldn’t take it, feeling that strange sensation in the pit of her stomach, that impotence that makes you want to go and scream yourself, tell them to shut the fuck up. But Lee couldn’t do that, she couldn’t get up from the bed, she didn’t have the courage to do it.  
And she could feel her brother in the room next to hers, sitting on his bed, doing the opposite of her. Lee knew Hunter always sat over the mattress with his ears wide open to listen to every single word their parents said until they couldn’t yell anymore and his eyes couldn’t cry anymore. Some nights, Hunter knocked softly his sister’s door and entered, lying on her bed and falling asleep next to her.  
And Lee loved those nights; she loved not feeling lonely, she loved feeling like she was there for something, that somebody actually needed her.  
Anyway, Lee’s phone didn’t buzz until next day, when she was too ashamed of herself to reply to Niall. But her brother did come into her bedroom.  
“Can I come in, Lee?”  
When Hunter was a baby he couldn’t manage to say his sister’s name, Lily Ann, and ended up calling her Lee. The girl, two years older, hated her name; she decided she wasn’t going to answer to anybody that didn’t call her Lee. She considered that ‘Lily Ann’ never described her properly, mostly because it was her mother’s name and she didn’t like her, not even when she was a baby.  
Lee’s mom, Lily Ann, was always too busy in her own business to care about their children, so plenty of babysitters took care of Lee and her brother since the little one had a year. And a girl needs her mother; a baby girl needs her mother to talk about boys, about clothes, about friends and parties, about high school and about growing up.  
That was why Lee hated her name, because she hated what it meant.  
“Of course.” She whispered while trying to smile. “I was waiting for you.”  
Both brother and sister sat over the bed, in front of each other, looking straight. And the boy’s hands searched for hers under the sheets, holding his sister’s fingers. She smiled.  
“You shouldn’t listen to them, Hunter.” She murmured, and he looked away. The elder girl forced him to look at her again. “You know it hurts you.”  
“And what can I do? Try to sleep, like you? With no results?”  
“Come here.” Lee immediately replied, shrugging her shoulders. “Come here every night, we can talk until we fall asleep, Hunter.”  
The boy looked at her for a moment before resting his back over the wall, closing his eyes and clenching his jaws. Lee held his wrist tight and looked at her brother; he was a very good looking boy. She suddenly got happy, sitting straight over her bed and smiling wide.  
“Do you have a girlfriend, Hunter?”  
“Lee, please…” The boy protested, slapping his own forehead.  
“I want to know!” She laughed. “What about your friend Poppy? She’s in my Biology class, you know? She’s very pretty, and she’s two years older than you. A good one!”  
She omitted the fact that Niall and Poppy were starting to make good friends, and waited patiently for her brother to answer. He slowly opened his dark eyes to look at her and blushed lightly, enough for Lee to notice.  
“I knew it!” She yelled, laughing like crazy and letting her back fall over the mattress. The boy blushed even more and Lee talked again through giggles. “Oh my God, Hunter, that’s so cute. I bet she likes you.”  
“She barely knows my name.” He said through his teeth. “We have talked five times and a half. The half is for when she waved at me in the corridor.”  
“You counted them?” Lee asked, her eyes sparkling and her arms wanting to hug him. Hunter nodded and she couldn’t help herself, she let out a little yell of excitement and threw her arms around her brother, who grinned awkwardly. None of them were hearing their parents anymore. “I am sure he knows your name and thinks you’re very nice _and_ fit.”  
“It doesn’t really matter, she’s too much for me. She’s two years older and she likes Niall.”  
Lee frowned when he heard the Irish boy’s name, unconsciously holding her phone tighter.  
“Niall doesn’t like her.” She replied, and noticed the way he talked seemed childish and jealous. Hunter also noticed, and smirked mischievously.  
“I can’t believe it.” He chuckled. “I can’t fucking believe it.”  
“Believe what?” She asked quickly, coughing a couple of times.  
“ _You_ like him? _You_ like Niall Horan? The most popular girl likes the loser from the last year?” He was shaking his head because, to be honest, Hunter wasn’t like Lee. He was a rough and proud boy as well, but he didn’t have any kind of prejudices. He liked people for who they were, not for what they were. “I can’t believe it.”  
“I don’t like Niall, Hunter.” She replied, looking kind of annoyed. Her brother raised both of his eyebrows and she sighed. “I mean, he is cute and nice, but that is all, I don’t even know him. You know I’m not the kind of girl that falls for the first boy that sits next to her. Not at all”  
Hunter knew it, Lee knew as well, but both of them also knew that the girl had a strange tone in her voice. It was shaky, not sure. Lee had always been sure about everything during her entire life, until then. And, as the days passed and she started to know Niall better, she would be less and less sure about anything until she entered into something she liked to call _hell_ , but people prefer _love_. She just didn’t know it yet.  
And the fatigue slowly captivated the two siblings until their eyes closed and their lazy bodies lied next to each other, Lee’s hand still holding her phone.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7.  
 _We are very proud to introduce you to the Atwood High School, where teachers let students throw their classmates into bins, where the Headmaster allows teachers to have sex with students over the classroom desk as long as they wore a condom, where we don’t give a damn about your future.  
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Atwood High School.  
Welcome._

“I can’t believe it’s finally Friday.” Poppy said, heavily sitting next to Niall.  
The Atwood High School was also Niall Horan’s personal nightmare, but during the last two weeks Poppy had been always around him, taking care of him everyday, going to study at the Library or at the field with him, teaching him how to draw as he taught her how to play guitar.  
Niall once told her that she looked like a little fairy and also that she acted like one, sweet and naughty at the same time. He even told her that she was his fairy godmother, protecting him from the dickheads of High School and giving him advices.  
Poppy blushed so much she thought she was going to catch fire.  
That’s exactly why female fairies aren’t allowed to take care of boys, and male fairies aren’t allowed to take care of girls. They fall in love with their godchild.  
Poor, poor fairy godmother…  
“Are you doing something tonight?” She asked, and Niall nodded.  
“I have to take care of my neighbour.” He replied, shrugging, and the girl frowned. “I am sorry, Poppy, I have to, but you can come over again. Rach liked you.”  
“Come on, Niall, we didn’t go out last weekend because we stayed with her, and my friends are mad at me now!” She protested. “And Rachel _hated_ me.”  
“She didn’t.”  
The truth’s that she did. The little girl spent the entire night insulting Poppy and avoiding the contact between her and Niall, but he always saw her with such good eyes he couldn’t notice the cruel side of the 8 years old. But she had a pretty big cruel side.  
“There is a massive party at a club tonight, everybody is going.” She commented, looking at him in the eyes and trying to convince him. “ _Everybody_ , Niall, but us.”  
“You can go, I don’t mind.” The boy replied immediately, and then smiled sweetly. “You don’t have to take care of me all the time, Poppy. I am used to staying at home.”  
Poppy blushed a bit and rolled her eyes back, her brain plotting a way to convince her new friend. That was when she saw how the boy’s eyes flew to one side, landing over the long, brown hair of Lee’s, and stayed there for a while, admiring her beautiful figure as she talked to Ronny. It made her feel jealous, but it also made her light bulb turn on right over her ginger head.  
“I heard Lee is going as well.” She whispered into his ear, using her usual manipulator tone. Niall immediately turned to look at Poppy with excited eyes, something that made her heart break, but she smiled anyway. “And Ronny isn’t. He has to study and get good grades if he wants to keep playing in the lacrosse club.”  
“Are you sure she isn’t staying with Ronny?”  
“Ten percent sure.”  
And that was enough to convince Niall, who phoned his neighbours and told them he couldn’t take care of Rachel that night. The little girl cried when she got to know it, but Niall was too busy considering what should he wear for the party. It had been such a long time since Niall didn’t go to a party, so Poppy came like a hurricane and chose the clothes for him. He finally wore a Comme des Garçons white t-shirt, black jeans and also white Converse. The girl stole one of his caps, red as her hair, and drove to the club.  
And Poppy was right; _everybody_ was there, including Lee, sitting at the end of the bar with a glass in her hands, lazily playing with the ice cubes while looking at the people around her in disgust. Nobody was worth to talk to.  
The place was an old stock made of brickwork that still had big vents hanging from the walls and metal, creaking stairs to the roof. There were two bars, a dance floor and large corridors flooded by already drunk people and couples snogging.   
Poppy smiled when they entered and took Niall’s hand, who got an electric feel by her touch -the same feeling Poppy always got- and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the excitement he was experimenting or maybe because she looked stunning that night.  
“Let’s go get _really_ drunk.” She yelled over the strident noise of the music.  
And the two friends drank shot after shot until they weren’t able to differentiate reality or fantasy, both of them feeling like in a dream. They danced for a long time, laughing like crazy and drinking again, having a great time together.  
And as the night kept going the girl fell for Niall more and more, and the boy liked Poppy more and more until some point when, none of them remember how, they ended up sitting at the roof of the old stock, their legs hanging from the edge of it and the music echoing in the room below them.  
“This party is amazing, Poppy, you were right. And the people are nicer than I thought.” Niall confessed, and the girl smiled wide, resting her head over his neck and intertwining her fingers around his. He got the electric feel again. “Thanks for bringing me here.”  
“No need to thank me.” She sighed, closing her eyes and feeling his warm body next to hers. “I have the best time ever whenever you are around, it doesn’t matter if we’re at a massive party, at your neighbour’s house or at Biology class.”  
Niall smiled very big and playfully messed her friend’s hair, who protested and hit his arm weakly. A long moment of silence followed, minutes later broken by Niall,  
“Why are you so nice to me, Poppy?” He asked. She removed her head from his shoulder. “Nobody ever looked at me, nobody ever noticed me. At least not since I moved here.”  
“I always noticed you, Niall.” She looked at him and smiled shyly. “I just thought you liked to be alone, now I know you don’t.” Niall felt the pit of his stomach twitch as he heard the ginger girl say those words, because they were completely true. Her shy smile turned serious and a bit sad, and she looked straight at him, talking in a lower voice, “I don’t like being alone either, you know? And I’ve been feeling lonely for such a long time…”  
“I am here now.” He quickened to reply. Poppy smiled and Niall thought she looked older, and prettier.  
“Come closer.” She whispered, and Niall frowned confused, but did it. He came closer to his friend and she moved her thick lips to his ear, Niall feeling her breath against his neck. “Your pupils are dilated. You know what does that mean, right?”  
“It means I’m drunk, Poppy.” He replied, reminding their class work together.  
“Or sexual arousal.” Her lips barely touched the skin in his neck, but enough to make him get goose bumps. “Which one is it, Niall? Which one are you showing?”  
Niall didn’t reply, but the girl didn’t give him time anyway. She pressed her hearted mouth over his neck, leaving mild kisses on his soft skin and he closed his eyes, pulling her closer by her waist.  
It had been such a long time since Niall didn’t feel a warm body caressing his, and he didn’t notice, until then, how much he was craving for it. He loved Poppy’s lips against his neck and he loved the way her hand felt resting on one of his sides, slowly removing the t-shirt to draw smooth figures on his skin, causing the boy to shiver.  
Poppy noticed and bit her lower lip hard, her round eyes admiring Niall’s neck under the light of a flashing streetlight.  
“Niall.” She breathed against his neck. He nodded in response. “I want to kiss you. Can I?”  
Niall nodded again, slower this time, and Poppy moved away from his neck, her eyes meeting Niall’s and feeling what she liked to call ‘magic’. They were dangerously close, breathing into each other’s mouth until the girl finally broke the distance between them, gently kissing his lips and getting rougher later, Niall’s hands moving to the back of her neck and pulling her closer, smiling at the cheap vodka and strawberry lipstick taste of her mouth.  
And both of them closed their eyes and held their breathing as their lips battled against each other, their teeth crashing sometimes and causing the two friends to laugh.  
“Finally.” She panted with a big smile when they broke the kiss, pressing her forehead against his.  
And Niall didn’t understand why did she say that, but he liked it. He liked it and he liked her, so he attacked her mouth again to taste her drunken tongue.

 

Ronny entered the place like he owned it, crashing against everybody that didn’t move away. He ordered whisky double with three ice cubes, drinking it as he watched the brunette girl dressed in a tight black dress and high heels.  
Lee was dancing in the middle of the dance floor, alone, knowing who was staring at her from a quite prudent distance while licking his lips in want. She didn’t sing very well but she moved her pendulum hips with a swing that melted the ice in the glasses.  
Ronny couldn’t take it anymore, her slow movements teasing him too much, and walked towards her. The girl smirked when she felt his hands over each of her sides and grinded her bum against his crotch, causing the young boy to groan and place his lips next her ear.  
“You know what you are doing, don’t you?” He whispered, and Lee nodded, her eyes closed. “Good, because I am horny as hell and you look amazing.”  
“Then fuck me.” Lee replied, turning around to look at Ronny, and both of them smirked.  
“I will.” He murmured, removing her hair and sucking over her tattoo, right behind her ear.  
They kept dancing, their hips fitting perfectly as he roughly grabbed her ass, desperately wanting to pull her closer to where he wanted her the most, slowly starting to get a boner. Lee’s brain was too drunk to care about anything, she wasn’t even noticing about the amount of people from their High School that were staring at them, including her brother, who left the place shocked. Kristin was also there, angrily watching how both of them ate each other with need. Niall, however, was too busy in his own business, softly laughing with Poppy and talking to her in whispers at the roof.  
“Let’s go somewhere else.” Lee broke the long kiss to talk, and Ronny nodded.  
They went to the toilets and locked the door. Lee sat on Ronny’s knees and kissed him roughly to take her shirt off later, allowing him to see her flat, tanned belly and her fleshy breasts. The boy bit his lips and quickly unclipped her bra, starting to suck on her nipples. Lee let the head fall back and threw her hands to her hair, tangling them in it until she felt her friend heavily unzip his jeans and she stopped him, going on her knees and doing it herself, not breaking eye contact.  
“I am going to fuck you senseless.” He groaned when she first touched his cock, lightly, causing Lee to giggle mischievously.  
“I’ve been waiting for this for so fucking long.” She confessed, and he was about to reply when she entered his entire shaft into her mouth, sucking hard and making Ronny’s mind blow, not able to say anything but,  
“Fuck, you are good.”  
Just when she felt Ronny twitching around her warm mouth she pulled away and kissed him, causing the boy to groan in protest, but she shushed him when she sat over him, sliding his cock inside of herself and slowly riding him while he bit down her neck and earlobe, whispering words that made her moan the loudest in her life.

 

That was, probably, the only night Niall and Lee didn’t think about each other desperately, wondering where the other one was, where was the party at, what were people doing to them. That night Niall and Lee didn’t feel the need of each other; she didn’t miss Niall’s laugh and he didn’t miss Lee’s eyes, but just because it was the beginning.  
If you had asked them who did they want to spend the rest of their lives with that night, they would have replied,  
 _“Ronny.”_  
And,  
 _“Poppy.”_  
But they were obviously wrong. Because teenagers are _always_ wrong.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.  
Mondays are always the worst. You have to come back to high school or work face people’s faces. And they look at you, they whisper lowly to their friend next to them and they nod or chuckle, deeply judging you.  
Mondays are the days when you have to face what you did on weekend, or, more precisely, who you did on weekend.

That Monday was an especially bad one for four of the people at the Atwood High School: Niall Horan, Poppy Young, Lee Fiddler and Ronny Chapman. It was the first hour of the day, Biology. In the third row you could see a sweet girl with a very long ginger hair biting her pencil and sitting next to a very nervous boy that was playing with his sunglasses over the table, not paying attention at all at the teacher.  
“I think those glasses look good on you.” Poppy commented, staring at his fingers playing with them.  
“Thanks.” He replied with a quite big half smile, looking at her in the eyes, and that made the girl have to look away and shut her eyes hard, feeling a wave of that strange sensation called shame. “Hey, are you ok?”  
“Perfect.” She shrugged while smiling, because Poppy always smile, not matter what’s in her inside. But Niall, in two weeks, had learned how to detect when Poppy was actually smiling and when was faking it, and he knew that time the smile wasn’t real. He tried to hide it, but Poppy, in only two weeks too, had learned how to detect when Niall wasn’t believing something. And she said, “I promise, Niall, I feel as good as always.”  
But she was lying again, and her smile was even more fake, breaking by the corner of her hearted lips. And both of them avoided the fact that it was because of what happened on Friday.  
That was why Niall, though he was ashamed to admit it, felt so relaxed when he had two free hours after the lunch to go to guitar class with Barbara and Jagger and could be away from Poppy for a while.

Three corridors forward and twenty minutes before that happened, Lee and Ronny were roughly kissing each other at an empty room, the girl slammed against a wall as she bit Ronny’s lips hard, causing him to whimper in pain.  
“I want to fuck you.” Ronny whispered, and Lee shivered.  
“Here?” She smirked.  
“Yes, here.”  
Lee smirked darkly and bit his lip again, rougher this time, causing Ronny to press her harder against the wall sharply, hissing in pain and pleasure. She loved it.  
“Are you hungry?” He teased. She raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Then suck it.”  
She was about to go down on him when a quick thought passed through her mind, blurring her ideas and making her feel dizzy. The eager boy noticed and frowned, encouraging her with his eyes. His look only made her feel more insecure, though.  
“Ronny, you know I’m not a slut, right?” Lee asked stolidly. The rough, determined look was again in her eyes, shining with hurt but proud sparks. “You know I’m not your slut, yeah?”  
“I…I know, Lee, but….” He stuttered, his lips curving into a shaking smirk. He was feeling under an awful pressure.  
“But that’s what I am for you, isn’t it? I’m just another pretty little bitch of yours.”  
“No, Lee, can you please stop it? We were having a good time.”  
The girl chuckled while pushing Ronny away, shaking her head. Of course she was right, for Ronny, she was just a good fuck even though she was his best friend as well. And, in that moment, in that room, Lee couldn’t believe it. She had spent years trying to convince herself about it, telling herself that deep inside him he loved her, that he was just trying to find the right moment, that she wasn’t a _‘hump her and bump her’_ for the boy. But she knew she was wrong through all those years, she finally admitted that Ronny was the biggest asshole in High School and that she had been lying to herself for too long.  
“But not anymore.” She whispered to herself, turning around to look at the boy, who was resting his back against the wall with a bothered grin on his face. She chuckled softly and shook her head. “You disgust me. I can’t believe I ever…”  
“Come on, Lee, are you trying to tell me that you are in love with me? That you have a crush on me since we met? That you want to date me?” He laughed ironically, stabbing right into Lee’s heart. “You know I don’t see you in that way. I don’t want any kind of girlfriend, and you would be the worst one.” He looked pretty mad then, his expression rough and sarcasm filling his voice as he spat the words. “Because, yeah, you are a _slut_. You hump with every guy you see, that’s what sluts do. And yes, I’ve been playing with you all this time. You know why? Because the fact that you are the hottest girl I know doesn’t make me love you. I am sorry, Lee, but you are not worth it. You are empty.”  
Lee stared at him for infinite seconds before feeling a warm sensation in his stomach that travelled up to her fingers, starting to burn. And when it reached her hands and burned her fingerprints she felt the need of make him feel it too, and slapped his cheek, leaving a red mark on his face. And it didn’t make the hurting sensation leave her, but at least it calmed it down.  
“What the fuck, Lee?” Ronny said, unconsciously moving his hand to his red cheek. “You are fucking mental.”  
“Goodbye, Ronny.” Lee replied, smiling with sarcasm.  
And clenching his fists with a restrained yell he left the room slamming the door, leaving the girl here, sitting in a single chair, and she couldn’t stop the tears.

 

Niall was walking towards the room 201 when he saw Ronny slamming a door so hard it opened again, and walking away madly. Niall watched the boy as he walked past him, shooting him a killer glance and spitting a hurting,  
“Loser.”  
The door was half-opened and he heard low sobs coming out from it. Niall never liked gossips and he always felt awkward when someone was crying, especially when it was a girl -and those sobs were definitely coming from a girl- but he opened the door slowly and took a quick look to the inside of the room, finding Lee sitting on a chair with a handkerchief and her mascara all over her cheeks. Niall decided it was better to leave the room quietly and pretend that he never saw anything, but the door did a noisy crack while he was trying to escape, causing Lee to turn around and yell to him.  
“Hey, who is there?” She said, clearing up her throat. “What have you seen?”  
Lee had a reputation to keep and one of the things she couldn’t do was crying in front of anybody. Lee couldn’t seem weak, she was the bitch.  
And Niall was caught. He entered the room again; Lee looked confused when she saw him, awkwardly standing in front of her, his hands on his pockets and his lips curved into a tense smile.  
“I… I am sorry.” He murmured. “I heard noises here, the door was opened, and…”  
“Don’t worry.” She replied, looking more relaxed. She knew Niall was inoffensive.  
Lee didn’t say anything else, looking away from Niall and shaking her head to herself, drying up her eyes.  
“Ehm… Are you ok?” He asked. “Did something happen with Ronny? I saw him at the corridor, he looked pretty annoyed.”  
Only his name made the girl let out a mad, low yell accompanied by a sob, her eyes looking weak for the first time. Niall felt anger starting to flood his veins and he hated Ronny for even make her chin tremble. He squatted in front of her and looked for her eyes patiently, wondering if it wasn’t too forward considering that they weren’t friends. But the girl definitely needed some cuddles, so she finally opened her eyes and found Niall’s ones, which caused her to smile warmly.  
“You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to.” He whispered, smiling back. “But, whatever he did to you, it isn’t worth it. He is a _loser._ ”  
Niall said it mimicking Ronny’s voice -it was his favorite word-, but it turned into a groan of anger. How many times Ronny said it to him, sarcastically laughing, how many times he wanted to say something back but never dared.  
“Ronny is so not a loser, and he obviously knows it. That’s his problem. That’s why he is such an ass. No, he’s not a loser…” Lee chuckled, sobbing a bit. “A loser is…”  
“Me?” Niall cut her off.  
“I wasn’t going to say that, Niall.” She frowned, though it wasn’t true.  
“But you were thinking about it.” He shrugged, getting up and looking at her from above.  
Her wavy hair was messily falling over her shoulders and her eyes were red, mascara drawing black rivers on her cheeks. Niall thought that the Lee that was in front of him that morning wasn’t the one that goes to class everyday. This one looked like a seven years old that just lost her favorite doll and knows she isn’t getting it back. She looked so sad, so inoffensive, so tired and powerless… it made him desire her even more.  
“Could you please… stop staring at me like that? I look ugly as fuck when I cry.”  
“I think you look beautiful.” Niall replied immediately, feeling his cheeks blush when she whispered _‘Thanks’_ while smiling. “And, I am not sure if I should say this or not… But he actually is a loser. Letting you go like that… No real man would ever do that.”  
Lee stared at Niall in front of her for a few seconds as her lips curved into a tiny smile, feeling real sorry for him, for how everybody treated him like he was nothing when, probably, he was the best guy in school. She thought it, and said it,  
“You are such a good guy, Niall.” The girl murmured, meaning it. He sat over a table, his legs hanging, and shrugged. “I don’t deserve it. I was a bitch to you all of these years, laughing at Ronny’s jokes like an idiot…”  
“You like him a lot, don’t you?” Niall asked by surprise, causing Lee to frown. He immediately apologized, “I am sorry.”  
I would love to say that the girl said no and didn’t break Niall’s heart by the second, but that would be a lie. And I am just a narrator who can’t lie.  
“No, no, don’t worry.” She shook her head. “You are right, I do. Well, at least I think I do.”  
Niall jumped off the table and smiled in a strange way to himself, causing the girl to feel like it was her fault. In fact, he was smiling like that because he couldn’t believe why he was such a dumb guy. He liked Lee more than a lot, but she was definitely too much for him. And she liked Ronny, the guy he feared the most in this world. And then there was Poppy, she was the sweetest girl ever and it was obvious she liked him –more than he knew-, but…why?  
All these thoughts were running Niall’s mind when he heard Lee asking him something, and came back down to that room.  
“Sorry?” He asked. Lee laughed softly.  
“I said I heard you snogged Poppy last Friday.”  
He opened his blue eyes in shock and frowned, confused.  
“Wha… How? When did you hear that? Who told you?”  
The girl got up while drying her cheeks and smirked, liking the confused fear into Niall’s eyes, making him look like a caged animal.  
“People talk.” She shrugged.  
“About me?” Niall chuckled. “I don’t think so.”  
The truth is that people didn’t talk about him and Poppy at all, nobody saw them kissing but one person. Someone who was running away from the image of his sister roughly making out with Ronny Chapman and went upstairs to the roof to get some fresh air, finding Niall and Poppy talking softly while kissing each other in a very sweet way, a way only the Irish boy could do because he was so new into kissing anybody -Niall had only kissed one girl before- he didn’t know any other thing.  
He didn’t know how to make a girl moan only by kissing her neck in that one spot, he didn’t even think about daring to introduce his hand into Poppy’s t-shirt, he never felt the urge of biting the girl’s lip or earlobe. He was about to find it, though, find the desire of wanting much more from that person, so much more, and he was about to find it with the girl in front of him, the girl with beautiful rough eyes and a softhearted soul behind them.  
But Hunter saw them together and left the roof immediately, cursing low words and feeling really sorry for himself because he wasn’t going to be able to be around Niall in the same way. And he liked Niall a lot, but he liked Poppy much more.  
When he got back home he told her sister, who was now teasing the blond boy and loving it.  
“I didn’t see you at the party.” She commented. “I guess you were with her all the time, weren’t you?”  
“I was.” Niall replied, feeling his cheeks turn red.  
“She is very pretty. And nice. I like her.”  
Niall chuckled softly at the irony of the situation; Poppy utterly hated her. But Lee didn’t notice, and after a long moment of silence she walked towards the door without making any kind of noise, like a cat who doesn’t want to be seen, and was about to leave when she felt Niall’s eyes fixed in her back. She turned around slowly and smiled at him for the last time before leaving,  
“Thank you, Niall.”  
The boy just nodded and looked away, biting his nails and feeling like something was gone when Lee closed the door behind her.  
It was just starting.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9.  
Niall always believed in Bob Marley when he said ‘If you get hot then you must get cool.’, so he went to the gym three times per week. He worked out hard and he went out to run on Sundays, even in winter when the streets were wet for the fallen snow that was slowly melting with the morning sun.  
Niall tried hard, but never got cooler. In fact Niall, subjectively, was already hot. That wasn’t his problem; but the mirror always disappointed him.

That Sunday he went out to run especially early because he had to go to Lee’s house before lunch. He wore a grey hoodie and his beanie; it was an unusually cold March morning. The gelid wind hit his red cheeks when he opened the front door and his mood dropped, but with a sigh he put his earphones on and his legs started to run, his feet sliding over the just watered asphalt as his thoughts flew up with the bright morning sun, Lee always on his mind though he shook it hard to erase her, but couldn’t.  
That was why his heart was pounding even harder when he was arriving to her house than when he was running as fast as he could to stop thinking. Because after that bloody Monday in an empty room Lee hadn’t even looked at him, not a single glance, or a smile, or a word. Not a waving hand when they crashed on the corridor two days before.  
She had a reason, though. She couldn’t look at Niall, not after he saw her so weak. Nobody ever saw her crying, not even Hunter, and that made her feel stupid and uncomfortable, and naked in front of him. What she didn’t know is that Niall didn’t care at all, that he was falling madly in love with that Lee without noticing. That he liked her nude, with no roughness crackling her skin and no pride blurring her eyes. He liked the strong but weak Lee, because Niall considered that the strongest person is the one that isn’t afraid of showing their most weak side.  
She was about to show that weak side of hers to the blond boy that morning, causing a silent explosion that would change them deeply.

“Oh my God, all the houses are still the same for me.” Niall groaned, finding himself lost in the neighbourhood again. He looked around himself and frowned. “Number forty five… forty… five… or was it forty three? No, no, forty five, yeah, forty five… Is this one the forty five?”  
He was about to lean out through the gate when he heard a young voice behind him.  
“Here, Niall.”  
He turned around and saw Lee standing in front of him with a half smile curving her lips. She had messy hair and her face was pale, round shiners under her brown eyes.  
She noticed that Niall was looking at her in a weird way and shrugged, entering her hands into her sweatpants pockets.  
“I just woke up. I didn’t have time to put any make-up on or brush my hair or… dress myself properly.”  
“Why are you outside? I thought we were going to do the project today before lunch. It’s 10:30AM isn’t it?” Niall was about to check his watch when her voice stopped him.  
“Yeah, but… I wanted to phone you and stuff but I…”  
The girl looked pretty uncomfortable and Niall smiled, shrugging his shoulders to protect his neck from the wind.  
“I can come any other day if you are busy now, Lee.” He said, though he crossed his fingers hoping the girl to ask him to stay. And she did.  
“Can we go for a walk? I feel a bit dizzy.”  
Both boy and girl walked in silence, looking at the floor and feeling the uncomfortable presence of the other next to them. Lee’s arms were crossed like she was holding her own stomach, her face cringed in a hurt grin.  
“Are you ok?” Niall mumbled while stuttering. Lee moved her eyes to look at him and he blushed lightly. “I… I mean…”  
“I just feel dizzy.” She replied in a gelid voice.  
Gelid as the wind that was blowing. Niall put his hoodie on and buried his hands in his pockets, his tired body craving for a bed to lay over as his mouth opening in a big yawn. Lee noticed and looked at him again.  
“I am sorry.” She whispered, causing Niall to frown. “You can leave if you want, Niall. I am not a good company right now, I know. I just didn’t want to walk alone.”  
“I am not leaving.” He said determinately, shaking his head with his eyes facing hers. “I am just a bit tired, but I… I like… it… here.”  
Niall shut his eyes hard, ashamed of his inability to say something coherent while being around her. And when he closed his eyes, the girl smiled wide and giggled a bit, flattered by the fact that she could cause that effect on him. Niall blushed and slowly opened his eyes to fix them to the floor, coughing awkwardly.  
 _“He is being extra cute again.”_ Lee thought, feeling the urge of telling him it was ok, but her cocky side was enjoying it too much. Anyway, she though she should thank him for staying with her, “Niall, I appreciate it a lot that you are staying here with me. I am not having a very good morning and I love your company. Thanks a lot, really, for this time and for last Monday.”  
“May I ask what happened?” Niall asked after a while, swallowing.  
Lee stared at him for three infinite seconds with her dark eyes making his whole body tense, waiting for an ironic chuckle and a hurting comment. But there was no chuckle or no comment, in fact, she smiled sweetly and nodded her head slowly.  
“But let’s go to a more quiet place before.”  
Niall agreed and followed her along the streets though all of them were extremely quiet, only the wind brushing the leaves of the trees making sound. A beautiful, calm sound that accompanied them when they sat on the edge of a little lagoon rounded by green grass and massive willows; two swings at the end of the lonely park slowly moving with the force of the wind and whirring from time to time.  
“What is it?” Niall asked, smiling.  
“This is where I come when I feel stressed, sad, angry or simply bored.” She smiled back, letting her back lay over the grass. “I found it two years ago; nobody ever comes here. Well, a kitten used to come here when I found it, but not anymore. She was cute, I called her Fudge.”  
Niall smiled at the name and asked,  
“How do you know it was a she?”  
“Because she had three colours: brown, white and orange.” Lee replied lowly and Niall, who was sitting, turned his face to look at her. “Only female cats have three colours.”  
“Orange.” Niall laughed softly, and Lee frowned.  
“What? Cats can be orange. Garfield is orange.”  
“I know, I know.” Niall replied while giggling, and Lee stared at him for a few seconds before joining him, both of them laughing for no apparent reason but the fact that cats could be orange.  
It took Lee 15 minutes of silence to start talking. She suddenly sat up and looked at Niall, who was pulling the grass, from the corner of her eyes. She stared at him for while, studying the quick movements of his body until he noticed and them both smiled to each other. Niall was encouraging her to talk.  
“Tell me, Niall, why should I trust you?” Lee asked, looking deeply into the boy’s eyes and getting warm shivers. “Why should I tell you what I’m hiding?”  
“Because you feel like you should. You need to tell someone and somehow, I don’t know why, you feel like it’s me who you should tell.” Niall murmured after a while, looking pretty serious. The girl frowned and Niall found her utterly beautiful, wanting to kiss her right then. But instead of kissing her, he curved his lips into an amused smile and spoke again, “Also because you know I literally can’t tell anybody.”  
That made Lee let out one single laugh that sounded like music for Niall’s ears.  
“You can tell Poppy.” She pointed out right after.  
“I won’t.” He replied slowly, whispering the words.  
Lee nodded a couple of times and swallowed hard before talking, playing with the rings in her fingers. Niall thought she was going to start talking about Ronny, so he was surprised when she said,  
“It’s about my parents. I guess it’s not too much, but it makes me feel like crap. They are always fighting, you know? They argue each night when they think my brother and I are already asleep. They say horrible things to each other, Niall…” Lee’s voice got weak and Niall moved closer to her unconsciously, feeling the need to cheer her up. But Lee took a deep breath and continued talking, “My dad have cheated on her two times. Elisabeth and Megan, his secretaries. My mom has also cheated once, with my dad’s best friend. I don’t know what’s worse.” She chuckled sarcastically and shook his head. Then she looked at Niall and got deeply serious. “I don’t know what to do. I mean… I can do nothing, that’s what upsets me. They act like teenagers; they avoid each other and do things to bother the other.” She looked at her empty hands with terror in her eyes and shut them hard for a second, taking another deep breath to control her emotions, but a low sob escaped her mouth. Then she kept talking, “But I really don’t want them to… divorce. I sometimes go out for a walk in the neighbourhood because it’s quiet and nice, and see a lot of young couples with little kids and I can’t help but think… Will they be as unhappy as my parents with the years? Or will they still love each other no matter what? I sometimes am selfish and want them to be unhappy, and sometimes I get jealous of the kid that doesn’t understand anything. But then I think and… I really wish them to be happy, both husband and wife, and their children as well. Because I don’t want anybody to feel like this, to cover their ears each night and cry silently, to feel like I have to keep my family together although I bet I am the only one who wants it. That sensation of impotence… It truly sucks.”  
Lee shushed her whispers and slowly raised her eyes to look at Niall, who was fixedly staring at the girl. She half-smiled in a way that made Niall’s heart break in thousands of pieces and she shrugged uncomfortably.  
“That is all.” She murmured, blushing slightly. “Now you not only know my name like everybody does, but also my story. Now, you can judge me.”  
“I… I am glad you told me.” Niall stuttered, moving his eyes away to hide his pink cheeks. “I won’t judge you.”  
“No? You won’t?” Lee asked in a way that made Niall’s heart stop, her low voice sounding innocent but sexy. “And you won’t tell anybody, will you?”  
“I won’t.” He replied determinately anyway, shaking his head and frowning. “I promise.”  
“Good.” Lee smiled with both mouth and eyes, causing Niall to feel strangely happy. The girl could change her ways in a second, and it scared Niall. “I told you my story. Now you have to tell me yours or this wouldn’t be fair. And I know you have a secret, because everybody does.” Niall opened his eyes wide, terrified. “Did your mother leave you and your dad when you were a kid? Is your dad an alcoholic? Come on, tell me.”  
“My dad cannot be an alcoholic.” Niall murmured, looking away. “He is not around anymore.”  
“What do you mean? Was he the one that abandoned you?” Lee was joking, but her face turned dark and serious when she heard Niall’s words,  
“No. He died four years ago.” Niall surprised himself by saying it; he had told none but Rachel since he died. Not even Poppy knew it.  
“I am so sorry, Niall.” She replied immediately, feeling like she just did the hugest mistake ever. “I…”  
“Don’t be sorry.” He shrugged. “I don’t like it when people feel pity about it. That’s why I never tell anybody. My dad died, it isn’t your fault or mine. Actually it was his. He was drunk while driving. He also killed a man.”  
Lee slowly raised her hand to her mouth and covered it, her eyes staring at the boy’s ones, how they started to sparkle and he had to take a deep breath just like she did before.  
“I hated him for very, very long… I considered he was selfish for dying, you know? Like he didn’t think about us when he took the car while being drunk… But now I just miss him. I miss him, and I feel guilty, terribly guilty for the man he killed. He had a daughter and a wife too; I saw them. The girl was looking at me like I just killed his dad by stabbing him repeatedly. Her eyes… I won’t ever forget them.”  
He turned to look at Lee next to him. He wouldn’t ever forget those eyes either. Those eyes, those lips, those cheeks. That body.  
Her eyes, how they were staring into his soul. Her lips, how her tongue was wetting them. Her cheeks, how they were coloured in a pink flush. Her body, how it was slowly approaching to his.  
Niall couldn’t understand what was happening. He was talking about his dad with the most beautiful girl he knew and then she was leaning down… to kiss him? Niall looked into her eyes and they told him to be calm and quiet, they told him that she wasn’t going to do any harm to him.  
But when she got him pressed against the grass, her lips hanging over his as their eyes battled, her mouth curled up into a smirk and she moved away, leaving a very confused Niall on the ground, his heart pounding really hard and the cold that was hitting his body minutes before now evaporating.  
“Do you want to stay for lunch? Nobody’s home.”


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10.  
Once Niall whetted his voracious appetite for food they were finally working on their project.  
The boy was writing notes on his notebook, sitting on Lee’s bed with the back against the wall; Lee was lying next to him with her legs dancing in the air and pretending she was doing something, but instead of doing her part of the essay they were writing she was staring at Niall from the corner of her eyes.

She found very cute and amusing to observe the boy while eating, how much he enjoyed himself, and it made Lee get some kind of addiction to looking at him. He was writing down on his notebook while biting his tongue and humming a song to himself, frowning like he was very focused on what he was writing. And actually he was; he wasn’t noticing at all about the girl’s eyes eating his smaller movements.  
And something on them, on his smallest movements, the way he licked his lips or the blinking of his beautiful eyes, made her feel massively attracted to him. So, so attracted she couldn’t stop it. She wanted the boy, and when Lee wants something, she gets it.  
“Hey, Lee, how did you…” Niall started, but then caught her watching him instead of writing and felt angry at first, but then only ashamed and excited. He stuttered, “Is something wrong?”  
And Lee smirked, amused by his shy and awkward innocence and how she could make his body quiver and it only made her want him more.  
“No, everything is perfect.” She replied, slowly sitting up and getting closer to him.  
“Good…” Niall mumbled a bit shocked.  
But he got even more shocked when she united her lips to his, opening his eyes wide and stretching his body in tension as his heart was about to explode and he felt dizzy. Her lips were as warm and smooth as he thought, just pressing hard against his.  
Lee, however, wasn’t sure about what she was doing. She didn’t know why, but she needed the boy close. She loved his presence, so quiet, so shy, so sweet, caring and beautiful. She loved his laugh, she loved to make him laugh. Anyway, she knew it was just a simple hook-up. She was feeling lonely, he was lonely, it had to happen anytime soon.  
But looking into his goddamn blue eyes… was it just a fuck?  
“Wh-…what are you…doing, Lee…” He stammered out of breath, lightly pushing her away.  
“Kissing you.” She simply whispered.  
And this time she allowed the boy to taste her, and he considered she tasted like watermelon and lip gloss, sweet and soft. Niall couldn’t understand what was happening or why was happening, but he wasn’t going to waste the opportunity and he liked her tongue too much. He got the strength from God knows where and lied her on the bed, climbing on top of her hovering her body.  
“What are you doing, huh?” She said through the kiss, smirking.  
“Kissing you.” He replied just like she did minutes ago, his eyes closed and his arms holding the weigh of his body, though he was feeling very weak. “Kissing you.” He said again, lower this time, mostly to himself.  
The girl’s chest was going up and down with him, chasing him, her movements coupling his, looking for more friction.  
The kiss was lasting too much, the girl’s hand sneaking underneath Niall’s shirt and stroking his sides slowly, causing him to squirm like a cat; to purr like a cat. And Lee loved it, she loved how he noticed every single movement of her body and it made him shiver and groan in frustration, needing her as much as she needed him.  
So she decided she should give him what he wanted,  
“Can I ask you something, Niall?” He nodded. “Have you ever had sex?”  
The boy stopped kissing and biting her lips to look into her eyes. His heart pounded even faster, her lips slowly curving into a smirk.  
“No.” He murmured, blushing. “Never.”  
“Would you want to?” She whispered.  
Niall bit his lip hard, staring at the girl under him. She had the perfect hips, the perfect waist, the perfect boobs, her neck was amazingly long, her lips were poetry, her eyes burning coal. Niall never wanted anybody as much as he wanted her, but he was worried. He clenched his hands around her sides to stop them from shaking and leaned forward, his lips hanging over her ear.  
“I don’t know how to do it.” He confessed, and she kissed down on his jaw.  
“I can teach you.” She said, slower than ever. “I bet you do it right.”  
Lee sat up, her back against the wall, forcing Niall to move back. She teased his lips breathing into him, knowing it would drive him crazy. And it did, causing Niall to pull her closer by the back of her neck.  
“I have another question.” She said when their lips moved away.  
“God, I hate your questions.”  
“Have you ever gotten a blow job?”  
Niall closed his eyes and drove his lips down to her neck, leaving soft pecks on the way and causing the girl to moan lowly and wrap her arms around him on an embrace. His lips reached her ear again,  
“No.”  
She didn’t say anything; she just pulled him away gently and made him sit on the mattress, getting on her knees in front of him and unbuttoning his jeans painfully slowly, Niall watching her do it.  
Sometime someone told Niall that, when you get a blowjob, you feel like a king. That was exactly how Niall was feeling as her thick lips wrapped his cock, her tongue drawing the prominent vein forming on it. He threw his head back and closed his eyes hard, his throat letting out a husky groan as his fingers clenched the sheets, trying to make it last as long as he could.  
 _“Fuck yes, Lee…”_  
And seconds passed, or maybe hours, or years; Niall just couldn’t count time, his mind was blown, but he couldn’t last longer. He felt his heart racing and his body asking for it, so the words just flew off his lips,  
“Pull away.” He moaned. “I am about to…”  
But Lee didn’t pull away. She kept going up and down on him, waiting for it, pretending to swallow. And she did it; she drank from him and licked her lips, never losing eye contact. Niall cupped her cheeks and pulled her up to his mouth, kissing her and tasting himself hungrily, wanting more, wanting _everything_.  
“I think you should return me the favor now…” Lee purred.  
“But I…” He started, but she was already taking off her shirt and opening her legs lightly. She desperately needed to feel his lips on her skin. “Oh, wow.” Niall murmured at the sight of her body.  
He started to leave pecks on her collarbones, down to her covered breasts, something that bothered him and caused her to laugh and unclip her bra, making Niall groan and pay special attention to her nipples. And then her belly, finally reaching her hips and sucking on each side of them. Niall raised his eyes to search for hers.  
“Take them off.” She said, talking about her panties. He did what he was told, and she closed her eyes. “Now, eat me out.”  
Niall frowned. How on Earth was he supposed to do it? His eyes travelled up her body, from the bottom of her belly to her closed eyes. She was biting her lips, pulling the skin in between her teeth, waiting for him to do something.  
But, what?  
He kissed her thighs, her coffee colored thighs, trembling with want. He could taste her sweat, she had never been so warm.  
“Come on, Niall.” She growled. “Slowly.”  
His chest was about to explode, he stared at her panting body and shook his head with an animalistic smirk, licking his lip and finally pressing his lips against her. She let out all the air her lungs were keeping in them when his tongue lick along her slit and his lips wrapped around her clit, sucking it painfully slowly. He let out a low moan against her; she tasted so good.  
As the boy sucked on her, Lee shut her eyes hard and clenched her fingers around the pillow, her whole body shivering and her hips bucking to him violently, forcing Niall to place his hand flat over the bottom of her belly to stop her from moving.  
“Ah, ah, ah, Niall…” She cried out. She opened her eyes and sat up to look at the boy, resting her weight over her elbows. Niall noticed and raised her eyes to meet hers, smirking against her flesh. “Please, don’t stop.”  
Of course Niall didn’t stop. He couldn’t even believe what was happening, he had Lee shaking and begging for his mouth, he was the reason behind those sexy moans and the sweat in her face, making her hair stick on it. He wanted to give her pleasure until her body couldn’t take it anymore, so he gave another lick to her slit and slid a finger into her core, pumping slowly, causing her arms to go weak and not be able to hold her own weight anymore.  
“Add another one.” She breathed.  
Niall did was he was told, adding another finger and seconds later another one. His mouth was leaving soft kisses and sucking over her hips and thighs, and everywhere his lips touched, her skin got goose bumps.  
“Curl them up, Niall.”  
He frowned, not sure why was she asking about that, but did it. And the same moment he did it, she moaned the loudest, opening her eyes wide and separating her legs more.  
“Did I hurt you?” He asked, worried.  
“Hell no, Niall.” She giggled, her chest going up and down heavily. “You just touched my… favourite spot.”  
And Niall understood; he just brushed her g-spot. And he did it again and again and again, loving the sound of her loud moans and violent moves. His free hand moved towards his own cock unconsciously, stroking it lightly and causing him to moan against her, something that drove her crazy.  
“Stop, stop, stop.” She panted, and Niall removed his hand confused.  
“Am I doing something wrong?” He frowned. “I thought you…”  
“No, I love it.” She cut him off smiling and sitting up to kiss his lips, tasting herself in his mouth. “You learn amazingly fast.”  
“But?” Niall asked, feeling his throat dry up again as his hands stroke her back until they reached the top of it, slowly moving to her breasts.  
“But I want you in me.” She whispered into his ear with a low, teasing voice. Everything Niall could do was nod repeatedly, trying to swallow.  
Lee leaned down on the mattress and opened her legs again. Niall climbed over her and stared at her face under his. Her smirk slowly disappeared as the boy’s eyes watched her steadily, looking very serious.  
He just couldn’t understand how did he get so lucky. His chest was aching to say it, but he couldn’t.  
 _“Don’t be a pussy.”_ The boy thought. _“Tell her that you are fucking going to fall for her if she doesn’t stop. Now.”_  
But Niall was a pussy. He was too scared to even open his mouth, but her face was so sweet… Her smirk wasn’t there anymore, her face passed from serious to a gentle smile of his dark eyes.  
“Why are you looking me like that, Niall?” She asked, and blinked slowly.  
The boy shook his head imperceptibly and moved one hand to her blushed cheek, caressing it carefully and removing the hair in her forehead, then kissing it. He wasn’t brave enough to say it, but she could definitely feel something was different than the first day they talked. Something in his eyes.  
“Are things going to be the same when we come back to school tomorrow?” He asked in a whisper, his lips still pressed against her forehead. “Am I going to be the loser again and you won’t even look at me when we see each other in the corridors?”  
“That’s… hard, Niall. I don’t know…”  
He looked at her and his crystal eyes broke.  
“You are ashamed of me, aren’t you?” He spoke again. “You are scared your friends will laugh at you for hooking up with a loser like me. It would make you a loser too.”  
“You are not a loser, Niall.” She frowned, and the boy looked at her again.  
“That’s what I see in everybody’s eyes when they look at me.” He replied, pulling his lips close to hers but not kissing them, causing her to open her mouth and look at him in need.  
“Do my eyes say that you’re a loser, Niall? Do my eyes say that I don’t want you as close as it’s possible?” She whispered, burning his eyes with hers. “Because if that’s what you read on them, you’re not as clever as I thought. I bet a loser can’t cause the effects that you cause on me.”  
“What effects?” Niall asked, feeling the blood travel down to his member again.  
For any answer she attacked his mouth, devouring him and biting his lips. She took his cock with one hand and slid it into herself, causing him to break the kiss and bite and suck down on her neck harshly, clenching the sheets and fighting a loud groan. She felt weak, her mouth half opened and her nails digging into his back as he thrust into her, harder and faster each time.  
She felt so good around him, he felt so good in her…  
That was when Niall realized the girl that was sweaty trembling under his touch was the most precious thing he ever saw and murmured in a too low voice,  
“You have heaven trapped in between your thighs, girl.”


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11.  
You know when you are little and you break something and feel like you’ve done something terrible? That sensation of pity in the tip of your stomach that you just can’t ignore, something that accompanies you everywhere you go, and probably it isn’t even as bad as you think.  
That was exactly how Niall and Lee were feeling, looking at each other in class from the corner of their eyes, bumping into each other by ‘mistake’ on the corridor and wishing for the afternoon to come so they can meet alone.

And they felt like they shouldn’t be doing it, but they were already addicted to each other. Maybe people, even themselves, could think they were from completely different words, like they weren’t made for each other, but their bodies said other thing. The way they fitted like they definitely were made for each other, and how much Niall loved it… how glad he was to Lee that she showed him so many things, so many sensations and feelings he never thought that could be possible. Lee was teaching him that _everything_ is possible.  
Lee was teaching him that falling in love is easier than people think.  
 _“You have a baby tummy.” Lee said once, lying next to Niall. “I have never had sex with a boy like you.”  
“And how am I?” He asked, trying to hide an annoyed tone on his voice.  
“Cute.” She answered after a while of thinking, intertwining her fingers in his and letting out a soft giggle. “I have fucked fit guys, but also freaks and very, very kinky boys. But never a cute one. You are the first one.”_  
Lee was sometimes rude and superficial. And Niall liked to ignore when she was like that, obviating her hurting comments though he agreed they shouldn’t tell anybody about what they were doing. But Lee was also sweet and nice, loving and caring:

 

Lee looked around herself, checking the furniture of Niall’s kitchen. Later, her eyes flew to Niall, who was chewing his burger hungrily, genuinely enjoying himself. He took a napkin to clean the corner of his red, thin lips, then passing his tongue over them, finally noticing Lee’s eyes.  
“This is really juicy.” He excused himself for his not really good eating-behavior. “I can’t eat it properly.”  
“No, keep going.” She frowned, taking a bite of hers for the first time. “You seem to be… enjoying it.”  
Niall kept eating, his big hands wrapping the hamburger as he moved his shoulders up and down in some kind of dance, humming a song while chewing. He reminded Lee of a little kid licking and sucking a lollipop happily, and it made her giggle. She was seeing all of his flaws at the same time, but she didn’t care at all. Niall was eating like he never did it before, not caring about manners or being sexy –every boy she ever had a date with always tried to seduce her by eating in a sexy way; something she always found just gross-, he was being himself and Lee was glad.  
“If you look at me like that I can’t enjoy my food.” He said, raising his eyes to look at her with a piece of lettuce on the corner of his lip.  
“You have something…there.” Lee giggled softly, pointing at her own lips and offering him another napkin, but he didn’t take it. He took it away from his lip by licking it and pulling it into his mouth. He wasn’t going to waste anything, not even a lettuce. “I… I am sorry for staring at you. It’s just that… You are so not my type, Niall.”  
The boy frowned, his hands leaving the hamburger over the dish. He always thought that when a girl says that it’s bad news, but Lee’s face was amused. Her smile couldn’t grow bigger.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I once dated a boy that said I am fat.” Lee replied, causing Niall to raise both of his eyebrows.  
“Fat? You are so not fat.” He laughed. “I mean… look at you.”  
“I know I’m not. That’s why I broke up with him.” The girl smiled. “I also had one that said I was too clever, other one that said I wasn’t clever enough… That one also said I wasn’t funny just because I never laughed at his jokes. But his jokes were amazingly stupid.”  
“What kind of boys do you date?” Niall asked.  
“Assholes.”  
“Yeah, I can see.” He said, going back to his food and again ignoring that. She didn’t call him an asshole directly; they weren’t dating. But…  
Lee took a deep breath before saying,  
“I guess I was waiting for you.”  
When the girl murmured that every single muscle of Niall’s anatomy froze, not allowing him to even blink. He stayed there with his mouth open and the hamburger bleeding oil by its sides, soiling his hands. He slowly started to close his mouth and frowned. Lee watched all of this apparently patiently, but if you listened closer, in the center of her chest, a bit displaced to the left, you could hear her heart racing. Anyway, Niall didn’t get what she said, or didn’t want to get it. Mostly because his first thought was that she _had_ to be joking.  
But she wasn’t. Lee was more than serious.  
“It just took me too much to find you.”  
“Are you being serious?”  
Lee nodded, clenching her jaws and feeling insecure for the first time in six years, probably because of his steadily and bright eyes, which spent the last weeks devouring her soul painfully slow.   
“But I am not your type, you just said it.” He let out an incredulous laugh. “And… You are… _You_.”  
“So what?” The girl said, starting to look annoyed. She hated it when people treated her like she was impossible to get, though she was.  
“So what? So _what_?” Niall repeated her words, frowning. “Your best friend bullied me for four years and you never did _anything_ to stop him, in fact I think you never even saw me, and now you tell me this… I just… I think I have the right to freak out a little. I already freak out everyday just by thinking that I get to…see you naked. But that is all, naked in the outside, not in the inside.”  
“I am sorry for what we did to you, you never deserved it.” Lee murmured, causing Niall to close his eyes hard and shake his head. A deep silence flooded the room; the feeling of guiltiness eating Lee faster than Niall was eating his food moments ago. “Did I fuck up everything? I thought you liked me as well…”  
“And I do.” Niall replied immediately, raising her eyes to her again. “I did before we even started this project, I guess I was just sexually attracted to you but still…”  
“And what about now?” She hurried herself to ask. “Are you still _only_ finding me hot?”  
Niall shook his head slowly, both of them staring at each other’s eyes. Niall saw fear in hers; Lee saw pain in his.  
“And what can we do about it?” She asked; drawing a smile on her lips that quickly broke.  
The boy bit his lower lip, not giving her an answer because he actually didn’t have one. He checked all of the pros and all of the contras of the situation in two seconds, his mind racing like crazy and playing tricks on him.  
“For now,” He finally spoke. “I think I’ll just… kiss you.”  
“Go ahead.” She whispered.  
Niall shorted the distance between them, getting up and climbing over the table, his thin but strong arms holding his weight as he teased Lee’s lips, hanging the kiss with half-opened mouth. When he decided it was the exact moment to kiss her, his lungs ran out of hair. They had kissed before, of course, but that time it was different. There was something in the atmosphere that was private, that had deep, hidden feelings.  
He smiled when he noticed how Lee’s mouth tasted like a sugar cube melting in his tongue.   
“You taste like hamburger.” She laughed into his mouth, though.   
“Hope you’re hungry, then.”  
And she was. She was very hungry, so much she got up and stepped in front of him, biting her thick lips. Something in her eyes made the boy get up as well and kiss her again, cupping her cheeks with his hands.  
“No, Lee, not now.” Niall murmured through the kiss, knowing what was about to happen and trying to stop it. “My mom is here.”  
“She’s sleeping in her bedroom.” Lee protested. Then she moved her lips closer to Niall’s ear and whispered in a more teasing voice, “I won’t be loud.”  
Niall closed his eyes when Lee drove her hand to his crotch, placing it there and breathing into his neck.  
“Come on.” She whispered.   
Niall groaned deeply.  
“You are going to fucking kill me.”  
And with that the young boy made her sit on the long table and she wrapped her naked legs around him, pressing his hips to her skirt.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12.  
After Lee left, Niall felt that weird feeling of losing something again. He got it every time he saw her walking away, hypnotized by the movement of her bum. He wanted to have her close again, desperately. As close as they were less than an hour before, making love while staring into each other’s eyes and trying to be quiet, trying not to say what they were actually thinking.  
Because all Niall could think about was _IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou_ but his lips didn’t dare to form those words and let them out, not knowing that was exactly what was in Lee’s mind at the same time.  
 _“I love you, Niall. I love you, Niall. I love you, Niall.”_

Because that’s how young love works. It’s based on not daring to say things, on being shy; feeling the skin but not feeling the heart. It’s a race. The first one that reaches the goal, the first one that falls in love, loses it all.  
And when you’re 17, you never want to lose.  
The boy sat in the grass of his tiny garden and looked up to the dark sky, wondering if the stars knew what was his destiny, what was going to happen between him and Lee. But the stars didn’t want to give him an answer, or maybe they didn’t have one either.   
“Hello, Dad.” Niall murmured, looking to the stars above. “I… I don’t even know why do I look up to the sky if I don’t… I don’t really believe there is anything up there, I don’t believe you are there between the stars at night and clouds in the morning… But I have seen Mom doing this sometimes. She still prays. I have seen her at the bottom of her bed, resting in her knees with her fingers wrapped and her elbows over the mattress, murmuring prayers. I have also seen her just talking to you, and just crying. She’s seeing another guy now, you know? I really hope he’s the right one although he would never be like you… She dated many idiots after you… left.” Niall looked down to his feet and crushed the grass under his shoes. He didn’t say a word for many minutes before speaking again in a lower voice. “But I need to talk to someone, and I want to talk to you because…you always listened.” The boy took a deep breath and bit his nails, letting a slow smile curve his lips. “I… I met someone. A girl. She’s in my class since I first came to America but she never noticed me until now. I mean, it’s normal… she is… she’s a ten, and I’m a joke. She is like…the hot girl in school, you know? And I am a loser. It’s crazy.” He looked down again and shook his head while chuckling. “And I don’t know how or… or why, but she likes me and… And here comes the problem. She does like me, she just told me, but… I might not only like her? I think I am falling for her. I mean… she’s… the fucking -sorry for the word- full moon and I’m a tiny star that sparks awkwardly. I never will be good enough for her but somehow she likes me. She is so incredible, Dad, I promise… I can’t help it. She has those rough eyes always but I can make them sweet by only kissing her, and I _love_ how that makes me feel. But I am scared I will be the idiot who’s in love and she will reject me when I tell her.” Niall shrugged and his lips drew a hurt grin, his eyes getting wet. “You know, Dad, I don’t want to… I don’t want to keep being that damn idiot sitting alone at class anymore. I want to fall in love with her, deeply in love with her. And I want to make her fall for me too, and love me so crazily she can’t even believe it. And I really, really want to tell everybody about us… Tell people that no, that they eyes aren’t lying. That we are actually kissing, whispering, holding hands, _loving_. But I fear those dickheads will laugh at me and… do those things they have so much fun doing to me. And I fear she will join them… I wish you were here, Dad, you always knew what to tell me.”He shut his eyes harshly and spent the following minutes trying to hold back his tears. When he finally calmed down he opened his mouth to speak again, and smirked in an evil way and giggled naughtily, blushing lightly. “It’s awkward to tell you about this, but since I’m not sure if you’re actually listening to me… I want to say that… Well, I never did it before, but sex is _incredible._ ”  
He was about to continue talking when he heard a gasp on his back and turned around quickly. His jaw dropped when he saw his mother a few meters behind him, one of her sides resting against a column and her hand over her mouth.  
 _Busted._  
“Hi.” She murmured with an innocent smile.  
“How long have you been there?” Niall asked while frowning.  
“Oh, well, ehm… since the beginning.” She replied. Niall slapped his forehead and groaned. “But I didn’t hear anything if you don’t want to! I can ignore it!”  
“Mom…” He sighed and rolled his eyes back. “You really shouldn’t listen to other people’s conversations. Or… monologues.”  
“I know, my baby, I know…”  
The woman sat next to her child and both of them spent several minutes without saying anything, only looking at the white stars above them and thinking. His mom broke the silence,  
“Who is that girl, Niall? Is she the girl that phones you everyday?”  
Niall felt a twitch on his stomach. No, that was Poppy.  
 _Poppy._  
“I completely forgot about her…” He murmured to himself, and his mom next to him frowned. Niall looked at her and shook his head, going back to Earth. “No, Mom, it’s not that girl. It’s the one that was here a few minutes ago.”  
The woman opened his eyes wide.  
“Wow, Niall. She is incredibly beautiful.”  
“I know.” Niall smirked, shrugging. “She’s too much for me.”  
“No, of course not!” His mother replied immediately, looking at him. “She isn’t too much for you, Niall. You are the most beautiful, intelligent and kind son ever. And also boyfriend, I believe.”  
“She is not my girlfriend… and you have to say it because you are my mother.” He laughed and the woman next to him rolled her eyes back.  
“You will never know how amazing you are, Niall.” And added in a lower voice, “I hope that girl will show you…”  
They stared at the stars for a while again, and both mother and son were thinking about the same thing, about the same person… They could almost feel him there, sitting with them. A shiver caressed their spines.  
But what Niall’s mom asked had nothing to do with that. It was something that was also aching in her mind.   
“Did you two actually… had s… made lo… I mean…”  
Niall slapped himself again and blushed so much his flushed cheeks shined in the night.  
“Did you?”  
“Maybe, Mom!” He groaned. She opened her mouth to ask something, but Niall read her mind. “Yes, always safely.” She nodded and Niall sighed. “This is so damn awkward.”  
“How many times?” She asked, almost with fear.  
“What! I am not going to tell you.”  
 _Five, counting the last one on the kitchen floor._  
“Alright, alright, don’t get so mad…” She said calmly, hiding a smirk in the dark night. Then, she got serious. “And… do you really love her, Niall?”  
“I just… I don’t know, to be honest.”  
His mother nodded understanding him, and the young boy was glad she actually did for the first time in such a long time.  
And they stayed there for almost thirty minutes without saying a word, simply staring at the immense universe in front of them and letting their worst thoughts fly away with the warm wind of the very end of March, enjoying the quiet, dark night.  
Niall barely looked at his mom when she left him alone at the garden, giving him a quick hug and a soft kiss on the top of his head. She looked back when she was about to close the door behind her, glancing at her son one more time. He looked so confused yet so excited, those blue eyes lost somewhere up there, in the stars. And she smiled the biggest since they moved there, tears almost falling down from the corner of her eyes. She saw his husband’s sight in Niall’s eyes, the same sight she saw when they had their first date too long ago and he told her he was helplessly falling in love with a woman who’s smile was like the full moon.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13.   
_“Come on, Niall, go out with me tonight. We can go to a club, or a pub, or to my house. But please… I haven’t seen your face in the past two weeks.”  
Niall moved his eyes to Poppy and she blinked a couple of times, smiling innocently. He really didn’t want to go out that night, but it was hard to say no to that glance. He looked at the thick lips he kissed two weekends ago and felt his cheeks flush.   
She smiled wider and he groaned,  
“Alright. I’ll go out with you tonight.”  
She got up from her chair with a jump, threw her hands up her head, and yelled,  
“Yes!”_

The party they were at wasn’t much fun, though. Niall only drank a few beers and he felt kind of dizzy; Lee, however, was _way_ drunker. She was dancing like crazy standing over a table, her back to Niall, singing along to the words of the song that was playing and looking back to the boy from time to time to wink an eye at him. The sleeve of her t-shirt was dropped by one side, showing her shoulder as she moved her hands up to her ginger hair, blowing it back and then turning around to look directly to Niall, moving her hips slowly.  
 _“Come here.”_  
She formed the words with her lips but they didn’t make any sound. Niall shook his head while giggling but the girl didn’t give up, daring his eyes with hers, but the boy didn’t move a muscle. She rolled her eyes back and stuck her tongue out, still dancing.  
Every boy in the room had his eyes fixed in her tight body -except the ones that already had another tight body to hold onto- and Poppy loved it. It’s not like she loved the attention, but every girl needs a bit of it sometimes. However, she wanted that attention from only one guy in the room.  
Through the past weeks Poppy had been staring at her blond friend and at the stunning girl in her Biology class and corridors. Niall didn’t tell her, but she knew that there was something going on between him and Lee, and she was determined to finish it off that night, so she wore her favourite outfit and danced on the table in her most crazy but sexy way. And she knew Niall was loving it, because she knew that Niall felt something towards her.  
The question was… Was it as strong as what he felt for Lee?  
“Poppy, if you don’t stop now you’re going to hurt yourself.” Niall spoke above the strident noise of the loud music, laughing.   
“You are boring, Niall.” She protested, turning to look at him. “Come on, have fun, drink, dance; you are young and alive.”   
Niall thought about what the girl said for a little. She was right, he was young and alive, and he wasn’t enjoying it. He looked around himself and saw all those strangers and people from high school laughing and messing around, and felt like he never actually enjoyed his young years. He frowned; he really wanted to enjoy them. His eyes flew up to Poppy, who wasn’t on the table anymore; a guy was lifting her by her waist and running circles around himself as she laughed out loud.   
Niall drank his can of beer just by the time the boy left Poppy on the ground again and he got up quickly -maybe too quickly, he felt dizzy and had to focus- and walked towards Poppy, who received him with a wide smile and her arms opened to round his shoulders with them while giggling. Niall smiled and kissed his best friend’s cheek, resting his chin over the top of her head.   
“I’m sorry for being so boring.” He whispered and felt the girl shake her head, pressing her mouth to his neck.   
Both of them started dancing, this time a slow song, holding each other tight and simply moving his feet. All those guys that were looking at Poppy while drooling were now looking at Niall while chuckling jealously.   
“I want to talk to you.” Poppy said then, shutting her eyes hard, afraid of Niall’s answer.  
But Niall knew that she would ask him to talk eventually during that night, so he simply grabbed her by the wrist and took her outside of the house. They sat on a bench next to each other and stared at the night for a while before any of them said a word.   
“Why didn’t you tell me?”   
Niall moved his eyes to Poppy frowning, not understanding what she meant.  
“I am cleverer than you think, and I am not blind. I can see there is something going between you and Lee… And I can see how you ignore me.”  
“I don’t ignore you.” Niall replied immediately. “I just have a lot of thing in my mind right now and…I’m trying to figure them out.”  
“And why don’t you tell me so we can try to figure them out together?” She looked pretty hurt.  
“I… didn’t think you would be interested in them.”  
“Because I like you and I would get jealous about you two?”  
Niall looked into her eyes and considered that he owed her this, that he couldn’t lie to her.  
“Yes, exactly.”  
The ginger girl nodded and smiled in a very strange way that made Niall’s heart feel guilty as ever, and his fingers looked for hers, wrapping them in a lousy attempt to comfort her. And it was a lousy attempt because it gave her the wrong message, telling her that maybe she could have an opportunity.   
So she pressed her heart lips to Niall’s in a stolen kiss and shut her eyes hard, tightening her fingers around his. But Niall closed his mouth to not let her tongue in until she got the message, moving away and blushing so much she felt her cheeks about to catch fire.   
“No, Poppy.” Niall murmured, resting his forehead on hers. “I’m sorry.”  
“I know you fancy me, I know you do…”   
“And I do, Poppy, but…”  
“But you fancy her too, and much more.”   
Niall nodded and held her other hand, kissing it and closing his eyes to not see her tears and her shoulders shaking softly.   
“I’m sorry.”  
“I don’t blame you, it’s normal… She’s better than me in everything.” She said in a bare whisper, their foreheads still pressed. “She is more intelligent than me, much sexier and beautiful, perfect in every way… maybe even funnier and nicer.”  
“That’s not true.” Niall replied immediately, opening his eyes and pulling away to look at her. “I have never met anybody as funny and nice as you, and hey, you are also amazingly beautiful. Or haven’t you seen all those boys sighing and drooling for you inside? I am the most lucky guy in this town because I have you as my best friend. And you are half Irish!”   
She smiled wide and tried to control another sob, blinking her eyes to stop the tears. She shook his head and rested one hand on Niall’s cheek, who moved his own hand to hers and caressed it.  
And she whispered looking straight at him, “I love you so much, Niall.”   
And he kissed her forehead and whispered back, “I love you too, Poppy.”  
Both of them knew it was true, but both of them also knew it was different kinds of love, and it made them feel incredibly sorry. 

 

Lee sometimes liked to go to the field by herself to train without the coach yelling into her ear. She used to go when it was already dark and she asked the concierge to turn on the big lights on each side of the field for her. The concierge was a bitter man, but also a lonely one, so with a gentle smile from Lee’s beautiful lips he had enough.   
So there was the girl, in the middle of the green, quiet field with a football under her feet and her hands resting on her hips. She was breathing heavily from all the exercise she already did, cold sweat streaming down the sides of her face as she looked straight to one of the bright white lights.   
She thought about Niall sitting down on the grass next to that big light almost everyday while eating his lunch and writing quickly on his notebook, looking up to the girls training on the field surreptitiously. She noticed he didn’t do it anymore since they started… seeing each other. He went sometimes with his ginger friend, the girl her brother liked, Poppy, but not anymore on his own.   
She smiled when she remembered how she thought it was very creepy, and how much she missed it now that he stopped going. She liked to watch Niall even more than he liked to watch her, but she was scared to do it.   
Lee always you could fall in love with anyone if you saw the parts of them no one else gets to see. Like if you followed them around invisibly for a day and saw them crying in their bed at night or singing in the shower or humming quietly to themselves as they make a sandwich or even just walking along the street. And even if they were really weird and had no friends at school, just like Niall, she always thought that after seeing them at their most vulnerable moments, you wouldn’t be able to help falling in love with them.   
And she was scared to fall in love with him.   
“Fucking hell.” She cursed when she saw the hour in her watch; it was past midnight.  
She decided she should leave then, and walked towards the bleachers, her mind somewhere else so she didn’t notice the figure standing in the middle of them, his eyes fixed on the girl slowly walking.   
“Why are you here on a Friday night?”  
Lee’s heart accelerated because of the alarm, but when she moved her dark eyes up to look at the voice talking, her heart only felt anger.   
Ronny had been there for a while, staring at her running and kicking the ball multiple times; staring at Lee being herself. That was one of the reasons it made her get so angry, apart from the fact that she couldn’t look straight at Ronny without wanting to beat him.   
“I have a match on Monday and I like to train on my own.” She replied coldly. “What are you doing here?”  
“I came to talk to you.”  
“There is nothing to talk about.”  
Lee took off her sweatshirt and put it into her bag as Ronny walked down the bleaches to get closer until he was in front of her, looking fixedly at her to force her to move her eyes up to him. And she finally did, feeling a twitch in her stomach.   
“I am dating Kristin now.”  
“I know, I heard about it.”   
“And what do you think?”  
She stopped tidying her stuff into her bag to look at him directly.   
“I don’t give a shit, to be honest. I hope you two are happy. Or not.”  
Ronny smirked and sat next to her bag, resting one arm on it to not allow her to leave.   
“I am sorry for what I said to you, Lee. I do respect you. And I… I miss you.”  
Lee stared at him for a while and felt kind of sorry for him, but then shook her head.  
“I don’t know what to say. I have a lot of things in my mind right now and I am still trying to figure them out. I don’t want you as another problem.”  
“And why don’t you tell me and we try to figure them out together?”   
“Because you never cared about me.” She replied firmly.   
And Ronny shushed because Lee was right, and Lee kept putting her things into her bag because Ronny shushed.   
“Come on, Lee, I am saying I’m sorry…” He replied when she set her bag in her shoulder. “Why can’t you forgive me?”  
“Because you are lying.”  
And Ronny shushed again because Lee was right again, and Lee left the field because Ronny shushed again.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14.  
Poppy always loved to party, and party _hard_. Go to nightclubs, pubs, someone’s house, on the street… it doesn’t matter. But that Saturday she didn’t really want to go out. Her mind was busy in Niall, in what happened between them the night before.   
_“You promised me you would go to the party with me!” Said Camille.  
“But come on, Camille, I don’t know anybody and almost all of them are two years younger than me.”  
“You’ll have fun. I promise.”_  
Camille was Poppy’s cousin. She was two years younger than her, and was in love with a guy since she was five, maybe six. She decided that this party was the right time to finally get closer to him, but Camille was also a very vigorous and moody girl, just like Poppy, and her friends didn’t want to go with her and stand there while she goes crazy trying to snog her crush, so her last chance was Poppy.   
And the cousin agreed.   
_“Alright, but only if I get drinks for free.”_  
Poppy did get drinks for free. But what she didn’t expect is whom was she going to take those drinks with. 

When she entered the house she looked around herself and sighed; Camille looked around herself looking for someone and finally finding him. She took her cousin’s wrist and dragged her through the whole room, ignoring people’s cheers and smiles to her.   
She was too excited.  
“This is Michael, Poppy. It’s the birthday boy.”  
“Where is my present, Camille?” He joked.   
Michael was actually very attractive. Not handsome, attractive. It’s not the same though people always confuse it. He was tall, slim and wore smooth clothes. He had shiny brown eyes and a cute smile, and he was also very drunk already.   
Poppy grinned and that was when the boy next to them turned around with a glass of rum and Coke in his hand.   
“It’s her, but she forgot the bow.”   
“Shut up, Hunter.” Camille protested.   
That was when Hunter noticed that the girl standing next to Camille was Poppy and his lungs stopped breathing. They looked at each other and Poppy shoot him her sweetest smile, melting the ice on his glass.   
“What are you doing here?” He asked.  
“Escorting my cousin. You?”  
Poppy hated Lee, but she felt indifferent towards her brother. Hunter was, in fact, truly good looking and, in Poppy’s opinion, less superficial. They had talked around four or five times, and even though the boy had those rough eyes she hated so much, she could see a different spark on them that, sometimes, made her shiver. It also made her feel weird how the boy always smiled at her in the corridors.   
Camille started to move uncomfortably.  
“Do you know Hunter? How do you know Hunter? Are you two friends? Do you know Michael? How do you know Michael? Are you two friends? Why didn’t I know you are friends with them?”  
Michael laughed out loud and held the girl by her waist, causing her to blush. Hunter drew a half smile and let out a chuckle, then looked at the ground and raised his dark eyes a couple of seconds later to glance at Poppy.   
She thought he was extremely hot, especially when he pulled closer to talk into her ear.  
“I think we should leave them alone now. Do you want a drink?”  
Camille had a nervous glare in her eyes, which calmed a little bit when her cousin told her to relax and Hunter winked an eye just before taking Poppy to where the drinks were at.  
The night was pretty young.

 

They were sitting on the couch in an empty room, each one with a drink in their hands and a big smile on their lips. It was almost 4AM.   
“I still don’t know why did I come here. My cousin’s friends didn’t want to come here with her. Now I get them.” Poppy laughed and it filled the room.   
Hunter smirked and got more comfortable on the couch, spreading his legs apart and leaning forward, his elbows resting over his knees. Poppy then remembered her class work with Niall.  
 _The more spread a man’s legs are when he’s sitting, the more comfortable he is with himself._  
Poppy guessed Hunter was quite comfortable with himself, and by looking at him she really didn’t find any problem to not be.   
Hunter had his sister’s beauty, which they inherited from both of their parents, but especially from their father. Hunter’s father was a serious and impassive man, you could never say no to him and, if you did, he could make you run away with your tail in between your legs like a puppy dog only with just one look.   
That was what made the man handsome, his determined dark eyes. The eyes that his daughter, and one year and a few months later, his son, inherited. But what was different between the siblings and their dad was that, probably only because they were younger, you could melt those rough eyes if you knew how to.   
Poppy knew how to crackle Hunter’s eyes, although she really never understood why.   
“You are staring at me.” Hunter said cockily, turning his head back to look at the girl.   
“I was just thinking.” She said. “Does your friend like my cousin?”  
Hunter thought for a while.  
“Camille is nice and very hot, so I guess he does. But I don’t know for sure.”  
Poppy nodded and fixed her eyes on the white wall in front of them, distractedly playing with the ice cubes in her drink.   
“I am lucky you are here. If you weren’t, I would be sitting in this sofa without company.” She said then.   
“No, you wouldn’t. You are too pretty to be alone.”  
Poppy looked at him with an incredulous smile and raised her eyebrows, but muttered a sincere  
“Thank you.”   
After that she fixed her eyes again on the wall, trying to calm down the blush of her cheeks and the uncomfortable presence of the younger boy next to her. She finally got to eliminate Hunter next to her, but he was still there and slowly approaching.   
She only noticed when she felt his lips pressed against the skin of her neck and his straight nose brushing down on her jawline. She gasped when the peck on her neck turned into an actual kiss and grabbed the boy’s wrist to stop him.   
“What are you doing?”  
But Hunter didn’t reply. He waited for that for too long, and he wasn’t going to waste that opportunity. He knew Poppy felt attracted to him, so he continued kissing the girl’s neck harder, and she let out another gasp, louder this time, when he found her weak spot. All her body got goose bumps and Hunter smirked against her skin.   
“Hunter, please… you are two years younger and you are Lee’s little brother and…”  
Hunter, ignoring her, moved his lips up to Poppy’s mouth and pressed his forehead against hers, grabbing the back of her neck. He looked at her and she noticed that the roughness of Hunter’s eyes wasn’t there anymore.   
Where was it?  
“Just a bit.” He almost begged. “Just for a moment.”  
And after that he crashed his lips against Poppy’s and closed his eyes and grabbed the back of her neck closed and held his breath. And Poppy tightened his hand around Hunter’s wrist and opened her mouth to let his tongue in and felt her heart go crazy.   
They continued kissing and the boy leaned her down against the couch so slowly she barely noticed, and his fingers caressed her arm up to her shoulder and clavicle and stopped when they reached her blouse, teasing the buttons of it until he finally dared to open them. The kiss was so sweet and warm Poppy didn’t notice at first, but when she felt his cold and shaky fingerprints brush against her sensitive skin, her hand moved quickly to his and she opened her eyes, shaking her head.   
“Just a bit.” He repeated. “Just for a moment.”  
And his touch was so sweet and warm she let him do and he took off her blouse, but she didn’t let him unclip her bra. The boy left kisses around her breasts and stroked her sides, causing her to breathe a little louder and get goose bumps all over her body once again. But when his mouth travelled down to the belt of her shorts, Poppy started to shake and frowned, feeling her crotch pulsate. She frowned harder and bit her lower lip.   
Hunter, although he barely was sixteen, wasn’t a virgin anymore. His first time was with a girl that was two years older, and was at his fifteenth birthday party. Her name was Amanda, and she was in the football club with his sister. The next time was around two months ago from that night, and this time it was with a girl in his class, Elise. They were friends and apparently the girl was really into Hunter. However, Hunter didn’t feel the same and the girl was two rooms away from that couch crying over him, her best friend trying to cheer her up.   
Anyway, Poppy, though she was about to turn eighteen -in exactly three months and twenty one days-, was still a virgin. And she felt very uncomfortable about that, and the boy was so nice and loving and he seemed perfect for that, but he wasn’t. She had someone else in her mind, and although she closed her eyes harder and harder to make that image disappear, it was still there.   
_“Niall.”_ She mumbled in a very low voice, but Hunter heard it. He acted like he didn’t and unbuttoned the belt slower than ever, like it was holy.   
The situation wasn’t the right one either, and Poppy considered what to do. She really didn’t want to tell him that she was a virgin, but she also heard that Niall and him were good friends, and didn’t want to harm their friendship.  
“Stop.” She gasped when Hunter had already undone her shorts. Hunter clenched his fingers cushion in frustration. “Stop, please.”  
She sat up and looked at the boy, who seemed disappointed and kind of sad.   
“I really like you, Hunter. I had an amazing time with you tonight, I didn’t know you were this funny and nice and sweet. You are an incredible kisser too, I promise nobody ever kissed me like this before, not even…” She cut herself off and blushed. “And you are actually very handsome, probably the most handsome boy I have ever met.” Hunter smirked real big and she blushed a bit more. “But there is someone else.”  
Poppy didn’t say Niall’s name, but Hunter understood it was him. And felt anger fill his veins, but he hid it. Instead of getting mad, he took a deep breath and nodded, trying to smile.   
“Maybe another time?” He asked.  
“Maybe another time.” She answered.   
And with that and a quick kiss on the lips Poppy left the room and Hunter inside of it. He sighed loudly and grabbed a cushion, throwing it against the closed door hard and then letting his back slide down on the couch until he almost fell from it.   
“Fucking Niall.”


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15.  
With her sunglasses on she was enjoying her cigarette and the sensation of relax it made her get. She was only eighteen, but in her eyes you could see she knew a lot. That was why she was hiding them.   
She was moving her head to the sound of a music that wasn’t playing, and she knew that the boys around there were looking at her. But by looking at her those boys could never know what Lee had been through. They could never tell, for example, that she was fourteen when she first had sex, and that it was with her two years older boyfriend called Dave, who was a football player and forced her. They neither could tell that she cried for five months straight after that but never told anybody, and never had sex again until three years later, though she had many opportunities.   
Lee used to go to that park in those days of the school year when they had nothing to do; no homework, nothing to study, no projects…  
No projects.  
 _“Shit!”_ She cursed.  
She forgot to do the part of her Literature project and send it to Niall. She grabbed her phone and saw fifteen notifications on her Whatsapp application, and she was sure they were from the Irish boy. She sighed and let her back fall on the grass, staring at the clear sky for a few seconds before clicking on the App.   
The fifteen messages popped suddenly and she read them. They were all the same.  
 _hey, lee, i need your part of the project  
lee, come on, answer  
leeeeeeeeeeeee  
lily ann fiddler answer me pls  
LEEEEEEE _  
And the list went on.  
She closed her eyes and let the sun caress her skin, but a football disturbed her momentary rest, hitting her right in her arm. The two boys burst into laughter and high fived.   
“Fucking hell, Hunter!”  
Her brother raised one hand to ask for sorry, but she growled annoyed.   
She accompanied Hunter and his friend Michael for a walk to the park next to the Atwood High School, after the two siblings left the classes and the other boy came to have a chat with his friend.   
Lee started to key on her phone to answer Niall as the other two boys lay on the grass, Hunter resting his head on the ball.   
“What happened between you and Camille at the end?”   
His friend smirked.   
“She gave me a blowjob” He chuckled. “And then told me she is in love with me.”  
Hunter frowned and looked at Michael, who was enjoying the sun of the first few days of April with the same big smirk on his lips.   
Michael was fun to be around and have some laughs, he always threw the best parties and made the best jokes, but when it came about girls he was an ass, and it always annoyed Hunter. How, for Michael, the only thing that was important was the blowjob and not the feelings his friend had for him.   
“What did you tell her?”  
“That the blowjob was good but I don’t feel the same.” He let out a short but loud laugh and Hunter rolled his eyes back, bothered. They stayed in silence until Michael talked again, “What about you and Camille’s cousin, the pretty red-head? What happened?”  
“Nothing.”  
“What?” He sat up. “But you were in a room for like half an hour, and when she left she looked like… like you fucked her.”  
“Well, I didn’t.” Hunter said coldly and shrugged.   
“Alright, mate, don’t kill me.”  
Michael didn’t know about how Hunter felt towards Poppy. To be honest, nobody but Lee knew it, and only because Hunter was a very bad actor and couldn’t hide it.   
Right then, the girl stepped in front of them.  
“We’re leaving.” She said. The boys groaned in protest. “I’m sorry guys, I have things to do and I have to drive you home. Let’s go.”__

__

__Rach’s parents usually went to their friends’ house on Tuesday afternoon, and Niall had to stay with her. They didn’t pay him as much, but enough. Niall had saved a great quantity of money by that Tuesday afternoon, so he could not go to look after Rach some weekends. The girl’s parents didn’t mind, they hired another girl for when Niall was busy, but always Niall was free he went to take care of her because the girl only wanted him.  
That afternoon they were outside at Rach’s garden, the girl sitting on a not very tall wall painted in white as Niall and another kid from the neighbourhood, Alan, played with a ball.   
Alan was twelve years old and not handsome at all. He had too little eyes, his eyebrows were too big and his teeth were kind of yellow, he was too thin as well, almost sickly. But he was nice, very funny, and also quite good with the ball. A good kid to be honest, but a bit naughty; definitely a future troublemaker, one of those that go around there making girls and parents scream.   
Actually, he already did. Ten minutes before that moment he made Rachel cry by showing her a dead lizard he found in the grass, and he was still giggling because of it.   
“You are just a corny baby girl, Rachel.” He said. “It was only a dead lizard. Dead lizards can do nothing.”  
“They smell.” The girl protested, playing with her long hair and looking at him with swollen eyes by the cry. “Just like you.”  
“Stop. Both of you. Immediately.”   
Surprisingly, the two kids did _everything_ spend_ time with me. With me, Niall Horan. It’s crazy.”   
They didn’t understand why it was crazy, for them Niall Horan was amazing. But they thought about it deeply, just like Niall. Rachel spoke first, with a hurt and proud voice.  
“So, are you dating that pretty girl now?”  
“I don’t know.”  
“Are you in love with her?”  
Niall looked at her and frowned.  
“Aren’t you too young to be asking me all these things?”  
That was the first time ever Niall spoke in a mean way to Rachel. It wasn’t mean altogether, but rougher than his usual soft and loving tone to the kid. Enough to cause her to start sobbing.   
“I’m sorry.” She mumbled.  
“No… don’t be sorry, Rachel. I am.”  
That was also one of the first times that Niall called the girl ‘Rachel’ instead of ‘Rach’. That made her sob harder and Alan clucked, annoyed and tired. Niall shot him a killer glance and he let his thin body fall on the grass, his hand distractedly playing with the football.   
Niall came closer to the short wall in a few steps and stood in front of her, looking in her round eyes. Rachel magically stopped crying and moved her little and fat fingers to her lips, biting and sucking them. She was still letting soft sobs, but she was trying to control them.  
“Why are you crying, Rach?” He asked, back in his sweet voice.   
“Because…” Sob. “I…” Sob. “You are dating an old…” Growl from Alan. “…pretty girl and I’m…” Sob. “I like you, Niall…”  
Niall smiled and left a gentle peck in her forehead, then taking both of her hands.  
“I love you, Rach, but you understand why can’t I like you back in that way, right?”   
She nodded, slurping the snots in her nose, and said, “Because I’m still a baby.”  
“Because you are still a little lady.” Niall corrected, causing Rachel to smile wide. Alan, sitting on the ground, growled again. Both of them ignored him.   
Niall took her little body in his arms and she threw her arms around Niall’s neck, closing his eyes in the embrace. It was a sweet image, so sweet it made Alan want to puke.   
“When I’m older and fuckable you will love me.” She said.   
Both Niall and Alan -he was twelve, but knew that word pretty well- laughed.  
“Don’t you ever say that word again. Your mom already told me she heard you saying it and gave me a long talk about bad words and about saying it in front of kids because they learn too fast. So erase that word from your vocabulary and mind, ok?”  
“Alright.” She agreed, nodding.  
After a few seconds of thinking he said,   
“And don’t cry over boys ever again.”  
The girl pulled away a bit the embrace and looked at him.  
“Why? That’s what girls in movies do.”  
“Because we don’t worth it. Do you think Alan or me worth your tears? Because I don’t.”  
Rachel looked at Alan, who opened his eyes and stuck out his tongue in a weird and kind of scary face that caused her to cringe, and then looked at Niall and frowned.   
“No, I don’t think you do.”   
Niall laughed and left her on the ground, messing her hair a bit. She ran to the end of the garden and sat next to three red and orange little flowers.   
“Can we come back playing now, please?” Alan asked, getting up and giving gentle kicks to the ball.  
Niall first checked Whatsapp to see if Lee had answered him. Nothing.  
He growled and put a smile on his lips.   
“Sure.”_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16.  
Niall’s mind spent the last nineteen hours thinking about the same thing. Exactly from 4PM of the day before to 11AM. He felt like some evil creature entered his stomach and was having a lot of fun inside of him.   
He knew it was a mistake just by the time she left his house the afternoon before, and he was only getting surer by seeing her in class. She did not look at him, not even once. He first thought it was because there were too many people around, but then he saw her on an empty corridor.   
She was walking in the opposite direction of him so they saw each other since the beginning. They had time to calculate what they should do, but what Lee calculated was different than what Niall did.  
Lee walked all along the corridor looking at the ground, and when they were barely one meter away from each other she rose up her head, but not to look at Niall. She looked ahead, like she never saw Niall passing by next to her, like he was a ghost. And it made Niall feel as horrible as ever, even worse than when she used to ignore him because she actually had no interest in him and didn’t _see_ him.   
This time she _ignored_ him.   
She was avoiding any kind of contact with the Irish boy, just because of what happened between them the afternoon before at his house.   
“What do you have there, Niall?” _  
It made him feel so upset he stopped short in the middle of the corridor like there was a big wall preventing people to keep walking, and turned around to look at her.  
Apparently, she was walking away like nothing happened, but if Niall had seen her face he would have seen how her eyes were harshly closed to control the tears and her jaws were sharply clenched to control the screams. But something stopped her determined walking. She heard her name behind herself, and it had Niall’s voice. She turned around very slowly, almost scared, and saw the boy standing in the middle of the corridor while looking at straight at her.   
He looked very calm, but his hands were shaking hard. He opened his arms in a silent question and then let them fall on his sides heavily.  
 _“Why are you doing this to me?”_ It seemed like he was asking.   
Lee had no answer because she was asking the same question herself.   
_“Why are you doing this to him, Lee?”_  
So she decided it was better not to answer yet, to just drop it.   
She murmured, “I’m sorry” and walked away.   
Niall could feel the heat invading his body, the anger blurring his mind. He could not understand it. He hated her for how she was acting, and he also hated himself for saying it when he shouldn’t.   
He turned around and walked away as well, not looking back, not even once. However, Lee looked back plenty of times, hoping to find his gaze but not finding it.   
She knew she deserved it.   
Niall bounced into the almost empty room like a hurricane, taking the guitar resting over the wall and sitting in front of Barbara and Jagger.   
“What are we doing today.” And it was no question; it sounded like they had to do something or he would go crazy.   
“Good morning to you too, Niall.” Barbara said quietly. “It’s been such a long time since you don’t come here. Why that?”  
“Exams. I’m sorry.”  
Barbara and Jagger looked at each other and Barbara nodded. It seemed like they had a silent talk with the eyes.   
_“Who should tell him?” Jagger would say first.  
“Me. I know how to talk to him.” Barbara would answer. _  
And then the woman spoke.  
“Niall, you know this is an extracurricular activity as any other, right? It’s like the cheerleaders or the lacrosse team, the football team… Even the newspaper kids go to work on it everyday though nobody reads what they write.” She made a short pause. “So, even though we aren’t as popular as the lacrosse team, you can’t miss all of your guitar and singing classes during almost two months.”  
“But it’s only me here… It’s not even considered as an extracurricular activity. The headmaster told me.” Niall spoke in a bitter way. Barbara and Jagger looked at each other with warn in their eyes. “I don’t have to get good grades to come here. Unlike the people in other clubs, I can fail every single subject and I would still be able to come here. But the thing is, I want to get good grades because I have to go to University, because I know I am not good enough to dedicate my _whole fucking life_ to the world of music. The headmaster and the counselor told me.” Niall’s hands were shaking now and his voice was louder. “So I am sorry if I didn’t come here for so long, but this is only for my entertaining. This is not a real club.”  
“But this is our real job.” Jagger replied immediately and Barbara opened her mouth to stop him, but he kept talking. “And we teach real things. I don’t know if you will become famous or not, but I do know that you came here as a scared kid that only knew a few chords and couldn’t hit a fa. You didn’t improve all of these things by yourself, we taught you and we are very happy we did, and we would be very happy to keep doing it. So please, be more respectful to this no-club and to us.”  
Niall first looked at Barbara, who nodded in deep agreement. Then he looked at Jagger, who had the expression of a father who just gave the best talk to his child. Jagger was right in basically everything he said, but even when he wasn’t, he believed he was.   
“I’m sorry.” Niall said after a few seconds, letting out a long sigh. “I am not having a good day. But I promise I will come here whenever I have to. I am really sorry, guys.”  
They nodded in conform. Jagger was about to start the class, but Barbara always were very sensitive and asked,  
“What is wrong?”  
Niall looked at them and wondered if he should tell them. They were his only friends for the first years he lived in America, so he first asked if they had time and when they said yes, he took a deep breath and started to talk.   
The story was something like this, with some of his exaggerations. We all exaggerate. _

__The situation was more than awkward; it was painful.  
They were both sitting over Niall’s bed, doing everything but the work they had to do. Probably it was because, in their subconscious, they didn’t want that day to end. It was the last day they were going to get together to work on their Literature project, which meant that after that afternoon they didn’t have any reason to meet ever again.   
“What are you doing, Niall?”  
She stared at him for a while before daring to speak. His back was lightly leaned forward, over a little notebook, and his teeth were clenched around a pencil, his tongue unconsciously rolling it between his jaws. His left foot was moving following a silent rhythm, and his lips were forming dumb words. He was completely concentrated on his paper until she talked to him and his eyes slowly rose to meet hers, making Lee’s lungs run out of air.  
“Fuck.” She thought. “He shouldn’t be so beautiful. It only makes this ten times worse.”   
“Um, nothing.” He said, covering the paper with his hands and blushing quite a bit. Lee nodded a couple of times, but her curiosity increased. “Should we start with the project?”  
Both of them sat in front of the boy’s desk and opened books, took papers and grabbed their pens. But neither of them could think straight. They had to talk about what to do with the project, but their eyes couldn’t look at each other. They were too ashamed.  
“Oh, Jesus, we need to stop this.” Lee finally said.  
“Stop what?” He asked though he knew perfectly what was she talking about.  
“This fucking tension between us. It is killing me.” She replied. “We know what happened between us. Two weeks ago we couldn’t stay away from each other and then, this week, we haven’t even… Kissed. I can’t be in the same room as you, Niall.”  
“Then your acting is pretty good, because I didn’t notice at all.”  
She looked at him for a while before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, massaging her temples. Niall was right.  
“I am sorry.” She whispered, resting her elbows over the desk. “I am a bitch.”  
“Shut up, I am the only one who can think that about you.” He immediately replied, causing the girl to open her eyes in surprise and look at him. “I… I don’t want you to treat yourself like that. You are not a bitch… at least not always.”  
That made Lee smile and Niall smiled back, letting out a low laugh and looking away, trying to hide his blushed cheeks from her dark eyes. He liked that girl hell a lot, but he literally had no idea of what to do. Especially when her hand moved up to his cheek and caressed it as her eyes drank from his, her fingers slowly travelling down to his lips and drawing the line that delimitated them.  
“Why are you doing this now?” Niall whispered.  
“You know this is the last time we have the need to meet, right?” She asked. Niall nodded slowly.  
The girl smirked and moved closer to his ear, breathing against his neck as her fingerprints barely touched his most sensitive skin under his ear, yet enough to make him get goose bumps.  
“I really want to see what were you writing on that notebook before…”  
“It’s personal.” Niall replied in the same voice, his eyes closed and his entire body petrified by her touch.  
“Please…” She begged into his ear, her lips teasing his skin.  
He was drunk of her smell, but shook his head. She pulled away, but before he felt her electrified lips kiss under his jawline, causing him to blink heavily and bite the skin underneath his mouth.  
“I will show you if you tell me something first.” Niall said, and Lee thought about it before finally nodding. “I want you to tell me what do you want to be doing in a few years. Thee, five, ten, thirty. I don’t care. I just want you to tell me.”  
“Why?” She asked, starting to feel her throat dry up.  
“Because this,” Niall pointed at the notebook he was holding. “Is what I want to do.”  
Lee’s eyes moved away as she licked her lips nervously, playing with her bracelets. Niall waited patiently for her answer, forcing her to look at him again just with the sound of his soft giggle, amused by her sudden awkward reaction. He wasn’t expecting her answer,  
“I don’t know what I want to do. I don’t want to do anything… I don’t want to get a job and become old.” Lee shot a serious glance at him and he didn’t need to ask why, she read it in his expression. “I just don’t want to have a boring business life like my parents do. I don’t want to get married and realize, twenty years later, that I am not in love with that person anymore… That I can’t even stand them, and have to act in front of people, feign everything is ok when it’s not. I hear them fighting every night; it’s horrible. The things they say to each other are horrible. And the following day, they look perfectly normal. I wouldn’t be able to bear with that.” She shrugged, her eyes flying down to the floor before muttering again, “That sucks, Niall. I don’t want my parents’ life. I don’t want to act every single day until I die.”  
“I think you already do it.” The boy replied in a murmur, immediately making her eyes rise up to his with a hurtful grin.  
Touché.  
“But it’s all alright. At least I guess it is. I feel like… like I have nothing left inside of my chest, but it’s ok.”  
As the words flew out from her mouth Niall felt the need to tell her he could make things actually alright. Make her feel good, nice, loved in the way she needed. He felt his own words aching in his throat, but he swallowed them. He also swallowed the urge of kissing her.  
“I did what you told me to. It’s your turn now.” Lee said, shrugging and smiling in a fake happy way, and hummed, “Show me what you’ve got!”  
The boy opened the little notebook and put it over the table. Lee took it in between her hands and started to pass the pages, her eyes flying from words to musical notes. She looked at them in amazement; the boy had written more than ten songs.  
“I didn’t know you could sing as well.” She said as her image of a fuckable Niall increased ten times. “I thought you only played guitar.”  
“I haven’t shown this to anybody, not even to Barbara or Jagger. You are the first one.” Niall said, glancing to her and biting his lower lip. She didn’t know who were Barbara and Jagger, but it made her smile wide anyway. “Don’t tell anybody.”  
Lee shook her head, she loved the fact that he shared his secret with her and she wasn’t going to ruin it by telling about it to anybody. But when she reached the last page written, Niall snatched the notebook from her and closed it sharply, his cheeks turning light red. She only had time to read the title.  
Truly, Madly, Deeply.  
“Enough.” He said shortly. Lee smirked mischievously.  
“Why? What was on the last page?”  
“I… I ha… I haven’t finished it.” He stuttered. “I don’t want you to see it.”  
She crossed her arms over her chest and pretended she was annoyed, causing the boy to frown and search for her eyes like a worried puppy. She tried to hide her smile.  
“It’s just not finished, Lee.” He whimpered, his hand moving to her arm but barely daring to touch it. “I still have to… make some adjustments. And the lyrics aren’t done either.”  
“Sing it for me.” She suddenly said, smiling and turning lightly on her chair to look at him. “Sing what you have so far, I don’t care.”  
“No.” He replied immediately. “No, no, no, no and no. No. I won’t.”  
Niall couldn’t believe he was now holding a guitar. He shook his head thousands of times, she begged thousands of times, and she finally convinced him. Her dark eyes looked so excited about it, so beautiful…  
His hands were shaking and sweating as he started to slowly caress the six strings of the acoustic guitar, his heart pounding harder than ever as Lee was showing all her white teeth to him.  
They were just a few simple chords, but they seemed the most difficult thing ever right then. He decided it was better not to look at her as he finally let the words fall out from his mouth, just a soft whisper._ _

__Am I sleep am I awake or somewhere in between  
I can’t believe that you are here and lying next to me  
Or did I dream that we were perfectly entwined  
Like branches on a tree, or twigs caught on a vine_ _

__But Niall couldn’t help it; his eyes slowly travelled up to Lee’s face and saw she erased any kind of smile. Her glance was stuck to Niall’s fingers, watching them play. When she raised them up to look at him he looked away and continued playing._ _

__Like all those days and weeks and months I tried to steal a kiss  
And all those sleepless nights and daydreams where I pictured this_ _

__And added in his lowest voice,_ _

__I’m just the underdog who finally got the girl  
And I am not ashamed to tell it to the world_ _

__That made Lee’s heart stop beating for a second. She couldn’t think straight. The world was spinning around her for the first time ever. Something in her mind switched and when she looked at the boy again she felt like something had changed a bit, or maybe like everything had changed a lot.  
Niall Horan was the most beautiful and sweet boy she met in her entire life, and he was singing to her the song he wrote about her. It scared her so much she couldn’t breathe properly. _ _

__Truly, madly, deeply I am  
Foolishly, completely falling  
And somehow you kicked all my walls in  
So, baby, say you’ll always keep me  
Truly, madly, crazy, deeply in love with you_ _

__Those words ached for both of them. They were burning in Niall’s mouth, he finally let them out and after all the time they stayed in his lungs, craving, begging him to let them out, they didn’t feel right. He felt like she didn’t take it as good as he thought she would, and his voice got weak and almost broke as he sang the next lines,_ _

__I hope I’m not a casualty  
I hope you won’t get up and leave  
Might not mean that much to you  
But to me it’s everything  
Everything_ _

__He stopped the strings with a sharp movement and slowly raised his eyes to meet hers. She was biting her nails and a nervous smile was on her lips.  
“You just fucked up everything.” Niall thought to himself, but said,   
“That’s all I have so far.”  
“It’s beautiful, Niall.” She muttered, seeing the boy’s cheeks colouring again. “It’s very, very beautiful.”  
“Thank you.”  
He left the guitar on the floor again and looked at her, whose eyes were focused on her own hands, playing nervously with a pencil. Niall moved his fingers up to hers slowly, and when their skin touched she gasped like it gave her a cramp, but Niall didn’t pull away. He looked for her eyes.  
“It is your last work, isn’t it?” She asked in a whisper. Niall nodded carefully. “Niall… Is that song about me?”  
After a while he said, “Yes, Lee, it is.”  
“So… you are basically saying you are in love with me. Truly, Madly, Deeply.” She looked away, through the window. It was dark outside. “Why did you show it to me?”  
“You asked me to play it for you. I told you it was private, actually is the most private thing I have ever written. And it was a huge mistake to show you. Love always fucks up things, doesn’t it?” Niall closed the notebook sharply and put it into his schoolbag.   
Lee stared at his movements with confused eyes, shaking her head imperceptibly. Nobody ever told her those three words, not a single boy. She didn’t expect it at all.   
Niall looked at her again and chuckled, mostly to himself. “I get it, though. I understand that you just don’t see me the way I see you. But how do you expect me to react, Lee? The most incredible girl I know wants to sleep with me, the most incredible girl I know tells me that maybe she was has been waiting for me through all these years but didn’t know it until now. I can understand you don’t love me, but you are quite selfish… You let me fall for you.”  
“I didn’t expect you to fall in love with me, Niall.”  
Niall chuckled again, louder this time.   
“Didn’t you?”  
She shook her head.   
“Nobody ever fell for me. Boys only like me because I am pretty, not because I am… me.”   
Niall let out a loud growl and rested his elbows on his desk, and his head on his hands, closing his eyes and trying to calm down his accelerated heart.   
“So, what do you say? Should I keep trying or should I lose any hope?” Niall murmured after a while.  
He felt Lee next to him fighting against herself, moving uncomfortably on her chair until she finally spoke in a soft whisper,  
“Niall, I… I like your blue eyes and your blond hair, I like your red cheeks and your loud laugh, I like your arms and how they hold me, I like your lips and the way they press against my skin… I… I like you.” Niall looked at her and shook his head, causing her to frown. “Hey…” She moved one hand to his chin and forced him to look at her. “I like you. A lot.”  
“But you don’t love me.”   
She bit her lower lip hard and they looked at each other for what seemed an eternity. The way they looked at each other was so deep, so intimate… They could feel everything that the other felt. Lee could definitely feel Niall’s broken heart, craving for her to take her words back and fix it; or maybe to say what she didn’t, what she couldn’t.   
And that was when those dark eyes of hers started to spark and become swollen, and she got up sharply while coughing violently. She opened her mouth and took a breath to talk, but didn’t. She managed to come closer to him and hug him or kiss her, but didn’t.   
She just left the house silently, leaving Niall alone in his room, his head buried in his hands; hands wetted by tears. _ _

_“Well, you should definitely go for it. It is obvious that she is in love with you.”  
That was everything that was heard in the room after Niall’s story. It was short and, if I write it here, it seems like one of those sentences everybody says to make the other person feel good.  
But it wasn’t.  
Barbara’s voice sounded so clear, so confident, both Niall and Jagger believed it with no doubt. And a weird atmosphere flooded the room, an atmosphere of excitement and eagerness that came from Niall. He was moving nervously in his sit.   
Barbara and Jagger looked at each other, and another silent conversation went between them.  
“Go, champ.” Jagger laughed then.   
“I’ll come tomorrow. I promise.” Niall said quickly, getting up and walking towards the door. He turned around to look at them before closing behind himself. “Thank you.”  
He ran along the corridor faster than ever, like some serial killer was chasing him, and ended up at the field. He saw Lee training in the middle of it, jumping around and kicking the ball with a smile on her lips.   
He stood on the grass for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath back and staring at the beautiful girl. When he finally assumed that his heart wasn’t going to calm down, he took a deep breath and let out a loud yell that had her name,   
“LEE!”  
The girl turned around and her eyes looked around herself, trying to find the voice that was calling her. She saw Niall and her legs stopped running because her knees got weak.   
“Coach, I need to go to the toilet for a second, I don’t feel good. I’ll be right back.”_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17.  
Niall stared at the girl as she walked towards him, her tough face looking impassively.   
“Let’s go to the girls’ room. It’s quiet there now that all the girls are training.”  
Lee dragged Niall there by taking his hand and ignoring the fact that his touch made her shiver. She locked the door behind Niall and sat on a long wood stool, looking up to the blond kid, who was wandering around the room while biting his lower lip. His eyes were focused on the floor but they were moving quickly from one tile to other.   
“Hey, Niall, about what happened in the corridor… I am… I am quite sorry, you know. I am a bit insufferable sometimes.”  
Niall moved his head to look at her while frowning and biting his nails instead of his lip this time. Lee noticed that his mind was somewhere else and that he didn’t hear what she just said. She also noticed that his hand was shaking.   
He said what was on his mind, all messy and impetuous.   
“I don’t even know if you feel the same, but sometimes I see it in your eyes.” He nodded repeatedly, not looking at her. “I know it’s not the right moment for something to happen, but tell me, if it’s not now when could it be? I don’t even know if you feel the same…” Niall was talking mostly to himself, he was clearing up his mind from the confusing thoughts. Lee was listening to him carefully, trying to understand his stuttering words. Then he sat next to her, letting his thin body fall on the stool and finally looking at her. “I woke up today dreaming that you were lying by my side, and I stayed in the bed thinking… wondering… what do your hands have?” He looked down to her graceful fingers and Lee followed his gaze. “How do you make me feel like this? Like a like kid painting myself next to you, _so damn excited_ … Is it weird that I think that we’ve won something just by getting to know each other? By having the chance to be with each other?”  
He let that question fly on the silent room and he looked at it as it disappeared, combined with the steam of the last showers. And when he looked back at Lee she was shaking her head no, repressing the urge of kissing him by biting her own lips roughly, pulling the soft skin between her teeth.   
“Maybe I am just a freak.” Niall shrugged. “Probably I am. The loser everybody says.”   
He was taking his breath back to speak again but Lee prevented him.   
She slammed her desirable lips against Niall’s thin ones with need. She had been craving for them so bad… the waiting almost killed her.   
Exactly eight days, three hours and fifty three minutes.   
Niall cupped her cheeks in his hands and pulled her closer, closing his eyes and enjoying her sweet taste and the kind massage of her tongue against his.   
“I need to meet you again.” Lee breathed. “On Saturday.”  
“On a… a date?” Niall asked insecurely. “A real one?”  
“I haven’t had a proper date since I was fourteen.”  
“I have never had a date.”   
Both of them laughed into each other’s breath, inhaling the same air and closing their eyes slowly. The stayed like that for a while, forehead against forehead.   
When they opened their eyes again their sights were, again, so private they could make anyone feel jealous. Even nowadays, if you ask someone about how they looked at each other, they would definitely answer that it just made people around them feel jealous.   
“I’ll leave you a note over your desk in the next class, ok?” Lee smiled. “I know the perfect place.”  
Niall smiled back and pressed his lips against hers once again; her kiss making him come back to life after all those years of death.   
Lee left the room abruptly, like a little hurricane, but Niall stayed there for a while, smiling to himself and blushing on his own. He passed one hand through his hair and then shook his head, trying to come back to earth.  
“I have a date with Lee.” He murmured, smiling bigger and looking at the door, the image of her beautiful and excited body leaving the room printed on his mind.   
Niall took a look at his watch, got up, took another look at his watch because he didn’t actually see it the first time and made one quick and quite uncoordinated dance move.   
“Hell yes!”  
Right after that he left the room while humming a simple melody he created.   
He was so out of worried it even made Kristen feel sorry for him and keep their secret. But that was just too much, and Kristen was the queen of gossips; she would be betraying herself if she wouldn’t tell anybody about them.   
The steam Niall and Lee saw minutes before wasn’t from the last showers of the team, it was from the shower Kristen was just taking. When she heard those whispers she turned off the water and listened closer, her hand over her mouth to prevent any gasp of surprise.   
When both of them had left she got out from the shower and let her towel fall on the floor, showing her curvilinear to no one. She grabbed her mobile phone and clicked on Ronny’s Whatsapp conversation with an evil grin on her lips.   
The beautiful angel wasn’t as innocent as everybody thought. 

The perfect place Lee knew was lost somewhere in the biggest park in town, the Lexington Park. It was similar to the yard with a little lake that was near Lee’s house, that was probably why she liked it so much.   
But, unlike the yard, this part of the Lexington Park had a great lake with gelid water no matter what time of the year it was. The lake was free of fishes or any other aquatic animal, but it had beautiful water lilies floating over the surface of the fresh water. Around this crystal lake there were three centenary weeping willows, which branches fell down through the years to desperately touch the water.  
Lee knew weeping willows are called like that because their branches fall and it seems like they cry, like they are depressed, but those willows there never looked sad. It was the most beautiful, calm place in town. Those three willows made the strong but warm air of the early spring calm a bit and flutter their leaves and the quite tall grass on the ground. It also made quiet waves over the lake, gently swinging the white water lilies. Also, their tall branches covered the sun from time to time creating a very pleasant shadow.   
Nobody used to go to the Lexington Park because, though it was the biggest and most beautiful in town, it was too far from the center and also quite close to a very dangerous part of town. That part of the park, with the lake and the weeping willows and the water lilies, was ironically the closest one to the poor neighborhood. It was the end of the park so, through the gates, you could see the destitution. That gave the park an ironical image during the light hours and a quite scary image when the sun was down.   
Niall was resting his back against one of the massive trunks, throwing flat little stones horizontally to make them rebound over the water with a gentle splash. He threw a grey one with the perfect shape and it jumped six times; his own record.   
Niall gasped and threw his hands over his head, cheering it.  
“Did you see that, Lee? I bet you can’t do it!”  
But, since he got no answer, not even a murmur, he turned around to look at her.   
The girl was peacefully lying aside over the grass with her eyes closed, the palms of her hands pressed against each other working as a pillow. Her hair was spilled all over the grass making smooth waves that, as Niall thought, were hiding plenty of secrets, and he felt the urge of knowing all of them, so he got up from the trunk and walked towards her silently, afraid to wake her.   
The young boy sat next to her and stared at how her eyelashes shined with the sun and at how her chest was moving up and down very, very slowly. He couldn’t help a smile. He moved one hand down to her hair and caressed it, causing the girl to churn a bit and open her eyes minimally, frowning because of the sun that was hitting in her eyes.   
“Oh. I’m sorry.” She whispered when she noticed that she fell asleep.   
“Don’t worry.”   
“I didn’t sleep properly last night…”  
Lee fluttered her eyelids a few times and sat up, yawing and stretching her body. Then, she moved her eyes to look at Niall, who was resting his forearms over his knees while looking ahead to the lake. He looked kind of worried.  
Lee sighed.   
“Nobody knows we are here, Niall. Nobody.”  
Niall moved his eyes to look at her slowly and frowned.   
“I am not worried about that.” Niall was a very bad actor.   
Neither of them knew how, but since their talk at the girls’ room three days before that afternoon, people started to murmur in the corridors. They started to look at them and laugh. Pointings, gasps, chuckles and _‘That’s what people say…_ ’ were all around the Atwood High School.   
If Lily Ann Fiddler had a new boyfriend, people _must_ to talk about it. And if her boyfriend was the loser of the last year, people _had_ to talk about it.   
It was starting to affect Niall, though.   
_“I thought the forgot about me! I thought they weren’t going to lock me in the toilets anymore, or throw my food to the bin right before they throw me, or steal my money! I thought they got used to see me in the corridors, that at least I was invisible now, instead of the kid to bully.” He said on the phone to Lee the night before. “But I was fucking wrong, wasn’t I? They never forget.”  
“It is not my fault, Niall.” Lee protested, her voice getting louder as well. “Actually, I think I know who’s fault it is.”  
Silence in the other side.  
“Your friend Poppy is quite jealous of me, isn’t she?”  
“Fuck you, seriously.” Was everything Niall replied before hanging up the phone. “Fuck you, Lee.”_  
They didn’t talk to each other until that Saturday afternoon. Lee actually feared Niall wouldn’t appear, and felt so much relief when she saw his thin figure walking towards her, sunglasses on. The boy stepped right in front of her and rounded her shoulders with his arms as she wrapped his waist, burying her face into his chest.   
It was the first time they hugged.   
_“I am sorry.” Lee murmured.  
“It’s ok.” He said, kissing her cold cheek. _  
So, after eating a few sandwiches that Niall brought, they were sitting next to each other looking ahead at the water lilies.  
Niall sighed this time.   
“I promise it’ll be fine.” Lee whispered, clenching her fingers around his naked arm. “They won’t touch you ever again. I won’t let them.”  
“How?” Niall asked, and his voice sounded like the howl of a hurt wolf. “How are you going to stop them?”  
“I’ll talk to Ronny.” She replied immediately. “I’ll tell him to stop it. He will listen. He is an ass, but he still feels a bit of respect towards me.”  
Niall nodded, but doubted it. So did Lee.   
They stayed like that for a while more until Lee got up. Niall followed her with his eyes as he walked towards the lake and stepped in front of the shore. Slowly, she started to take off her shirt.  
“Lee!” Niall called up the girl, but she did not answer. “What are you doing?”  
“Let’s swim.” She said then, looking at him over her shoulder. “Come on.”  
“But we don’t have any…”  
He didn’t finish the sentence -he just couldn’t-; the girl kept slowly undressing herself and dropping her clothes by one side, taking a look back at Niall from time to time, who was hypnotized.   
He never had the chance to stare at her body like that, every time they slept together it was quick and kind of scared and most of the times she didn’t undress herself fully, so he didn’t have time to admire her body. But right then she was about to take off her bra and panties, and Niall couldn’t look away.   
Her soft skin looked beautiful under the sun light, her waist made a perfect curve and she had two dimples at the bottom of her spine. She dropped her bra on the ground and leaned forward a bit, raising one leg and slowly taking of her panties. Niall swallowed to wet his dried throat, but it didn’t help. He looked down at his pants, then at her fully naked body entering in the cold water, and then again at his pants. He shut his eyes hard and threw his head back, shaking it.   
“Lee…” He tried to yell, but his voice turned into a weak murmur. “Don’t do this to me.”   
Already in the water, she looked at him, only her neck and face showing. She smirked and then introduced her head inside the water, taking a long breath.   
“Oh, God, fuck it.”   
Niall was already naked and getting on the water when her head got out from it, breathing again. Niall yelled when he felt the gelid water all around him and Lee let out a loud laugh that sounded like music to him.   
“I hate you so much, Lee.”  
He swam towards her as she managed to swim again, but he took a deep breath and dived to get her, taking her ankle in his hands and pulling it closer to him. When he got his head out again, she was centimeters away from him. They looked at each other deeply, their mouths half opened as they breathed heavily, their lungs finding it harder to respire because the gelid water was constricting their chests. Niall pulled her closer to him by putting his hands on each side of her naked waist.   
He felt the ground under his feet.  
“Are you cold?” Niall whispered in her ear. She nodded. “Come here.”  
She pressed his body against his and gasped, feeling his warm body. Niall shut his eyes again; she definitely felt his erect cock pressed against her, but everything she did was pull him closer and closer, wrapping her fingers around his arms and moving them down from her waist to her bum. She was trembling.  
“Lee, you are shaking. Let’s get out of here.”  
She left a soft peck on his cheek and shook his head. Niall smiled and kissed her on the lips, again and again, quick and short kisses on the lips that made Lee giggle.   
“Just hold me tighter.” She breathed.   
And Niall held her tighter, lightly pulling her up by her bum. Her breasts were pressed against chest and he noticed her nipples were erect, causing his cock to get harder.   
He opened his eyes to look at the water lilies around them.   
“Those are lilies, you see? Just like you. Lily Ann.” Niall said her name like it was a candy. She moaned in response, brushing her crotch against his lightly. Niall clenched his teeth. “You drive me crazy.”  
She moaned in response once again. It was everything her brain could manage to think.   
Lee was rolling her hips and brushing her sex against his as Niall squeezed her ass tighter, digging his nails on it. She jumped in the water a bit and rounded Niall’s hips with her legs, resting her chin on the his shoulder and exposing her skin inviting the boy to suck a purple mark on it.   
Just then he noticed the tattoo in her neck, that tattoo that was always covered by her hair and that he always wanted to know what it was.   
_A half-moon or a bird?_  
He attacked the bird just under her ear and she let out a very low moan; it was her soft spot.   
“You drive me crazy.” Niall said again.   
And after he said that she started to rub the tip of Niall’s cock along her slit, painfully slowly. Everything Niall could do was moan quietly, sucking harder on her tattoo.   
“I feel much warmer now...”   
She whispered just before pushing her hips forward causing Niall’s cock to slide inside of her. Both of them moaned and shut their eyes hard; Niall’s teeth bit her skin hard and his arms pulled more of him inside of Lee by pushing her bum forward.   
She threw her head back and gasped, “I love you too, Niall.”  
It took a while for the boy to understand.  
“What?”  
“I love you.” She whispered, moving her lips to his ear.   
She had liquid pearls of sweat in her forehead and this time, Niall understood it perfectly, but he loved the taste of it and wanted her to repeat it, so he asked again.  
“You what?”  
“I…” But he didn’t let her finish. He gave her a deep, strong thrust that made her lungs run out of air. “That was so good… You… feel so damn good…”  
Niall looked at her and kissed her lips hard, messy. When they cut off the kiss he asked again,  
“Do you love me, Lee?”  
“YES, FOR FUCK’S SAKE, SHE DOES.” A childish voice spoke.   
They pulled away quickly though their bodies whimpered at the emptiness. They looked at the shore and saw two boys holding their clothes. The two boys didn’t have more than fourteen years and they had dirty faces and broken shoes. They definitely came from the neighbourhood next to the park.   
“Give us those clothes.” Niall said in an authoritarian voice. “They are ours.”  
“Not anymore!” One of them said with a big smile on his lips, singing. The other one laughed.  
Niall and Lee looked at each other in horror.   
“But we can give them back to you if you give us something…” The other one, who seemed older, said. “We will give them back only if the girl takes them.”  
They wanted to see Lee naked.   
She nodded and was about to get out from the water when Niall took her wrist and shook his head.   
“Come on, Niall, they are two kids.” She murmured. “Do you want your clothes back or not?”  
She got out from the water without waiting for any response. She did it quite slowly, she liked to tease even when it was to two kids. The boys’ eyes opened wide alone with their mouths. They weren’t able to say anything; they just handed her the clothes.   
The younger one, although he didn’t look very clever, asked “Can I touch your boobs?”  
“Go away!!” Niall yelled, splashing the water and wetting both boys, who ran away as Lee laughed.   
Niall got out from the water and dressed himself while growling to himself.   
When both of them were fully dressed they sat on the grass again, not saying a word, just thinking about everything that just happened. Lee was playing with her wet hair.   
“Fucking kids.” Niall cursed, and Lee giggled.   
“What is a first date if nobody if nobody crashes it?”  
Niall nodded while smiling, but then looked at her.   
“Wait, so, ‘first date’? Are we officially dating?” He noticed he looked too eager and slowed down. “I mean… do you want to date me? Do you want to… be my girlfriend?  
She shrugged amused, “Maybe.”  
Niall slammed his lips against hers all of a sudden, forcing her to lay on the grass and hovering half of her body with his. They were both laughing through the kiss.   
“What were you saying in the water again?” He asked, gently biting her lower lip.  
She pulled him away to look at his eyes and with a big smile said,  
“I love you.”


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18.  
Lee saw Kristen and Ronny talking at the girl’s locker.   
They looked so out of worries, so damn attractive together and so popular it was even hurtful. It made her wish she was there with them, laughing at Kristen and flirting with Ronny like each day for the past four years. She frowned and watched them laugh and talk like they were the queen and the king of high school.   
Actually, they were.   
Kristen stole her throne two months ago, just when their Literature teacher said her name and Niall’s together.   
But she shook her head and reminded to herself that she didn’t care. She revived the soft arms of Niall around her and the sweet lips pressed against her skin and got felt her stomach twitch; something she always got whenever she saw Niall and never got with Ronny.   
_Is that what people call butterflies?_  
She walked to the couple and stepped in front of them, her hands resting on her sides.   
“Lee?” Kristen said, looking at her. Ronny also moved her eyes to the brunette girl.   
“I would like to talk to you, Ronny.”   
She ignored the blonde girl’s questions and took Ronny by his arm, dragging him up through the corridor.   
“What do you want to say to him?” She yelled from the end of the corridor, looking at them with worried eyes.   
Everything Lee did was show her middle finger to Kristen, who threw her hands up to her mouth and gasped.   
Lee dragged him to an empty class and shut the door hard, quickly turning around to face him. He was sitting on the teacher table, one leg hanging on the air as the other one supported his weight. His face was quiet, though he was very curious about what she wanted to say.  
He thought she looked hotter than ever, looking so mad and messy. He loved when Lee was angry.   
“What am I doing here?” He asked in an out of feelings voice.   
“You know what, Ronny? I regret my past so fucking much. I regret being your friend. I regret laughing when you bullied someone just because they were different from you. And I am actually very happy people are different from you.”  
Ronny let out a loud laugh and jumped off the table, wandering around the students’ table. He looked inside of a school bag and stole five dollars from the purse with a pleased face.  
“You dragged me here to give me a talk about what is right and what is wrong? Come on, Lee, you are the same as me. You are a bitch, and you enjoy it. You enjoy being the queen of everything just because everybody would like to fuck you hard. And now you tell me you changed because of a blond, cute, little boy?”   
“I am not better than you, but he is.”  
His laugh was harder this time. He stole a chewing gum from other schoolbag and threw it inside of his mouth.   
“Stupid rich daddy’s girl. You think it is cool to take an underdog and bring it to your house to clean it and turn it into a dog? Stop giving him hopes, Lee, he still is a dog. He still is less than us.”  
She wanted to spit him right in his face, but controlled herself. She stared at how he looked into the bags carefully and expertly like he did it millions of times.  
“And, come on, couldn’t he come himself? Are you his guardian? What a faggot.”  
“He doesn’t know I’m here.” She replied.  
Ronny sighed and came closer to her, looking at her for a few moments. Then, he sighed again.  
“I know you aren’t here just to talk. You don’t do that, you want something from me. What is it, princess?”  
He caressed her cheek but she slapped his hand.   
“You and your stupid friends won’t touch Niall ever again. Or look at him. Or even think about him.”  
“And what do I get if we don’t?”   
She looked at him and took a deep breath.   
“Tell me what you want.”  
Ronny looked up to the ceiling and moved one hand to his chin, stroking it dramatically. After a few long seconds, he looked down to Lee again.   
“I want to fuck you again.”  
“No.” She said determinately, feeling her heart pound fast.   
She knew Ronny had no especial interest on sleeping with her, he just wanted to make her suffer and ridicule her.   
He shrugged, “Then there is no agreement. Tell your boyfriend to watch his back. I called Cassidy.”   
He pushed her away and walked towards the door.   
He called Finn Cassidy. The image of the big guy that almost killed an opponent with a lacrosse stick came to Lee’s mind and made her knees go weak.   
“Wait! Ronny, wait!”  
Ronny turned around with a big smirk on his lips.  
“I’ll sleep with you.”  
“Are you actually doing all of this for a stupid loser? Where is the bitch I met, the girl without feelings?”  
“I’ll sleep with you, Ronny.” She said again, more determined this time.   
His lips curved into a smirk again.  
“Good.” He said, moving closer to her and placing his hands on her waist, ready to do it.   
“But not now.” She said clearly, pulling away. “After the Easter break. On my birthday party.”  
After thinking about it, he finally nodded in agreement.   
“Nobody will know, understand?”  
“I would never betray you, baby.”  
“And I have another condition.”  
Ronny raised one eyebrow and chuckled, “You ask for too much. But that tight body you have drives me crazy, so ask away.”  
“Tell me who spread the rumor.” She demanded.   
“No.” He replied sharply, crossing his arms over his chest.   
“Who was it, Ronny. Tell me.”  
She was scared the boy could say her brother’s name, but he didn’t. He looked at her for a while; she was breathing heavily and her eyes were rougher than ever. Then, he smirked big and clucked.   
Ronny didn’t feel respect towards anybody, so he considered that telling her wouldn’t be a big deal.   
“Kristen heard you two talking in the girls’ toilets. She said you kissed.”   
Lee frowned and took a step back, thinking. In her face there was a weird look; she definitely didn’t expect it.   
She was about to leave when Ronny called her.  
“Don’t you miss your old life?” He asked. “Your old friends?”  
“What old life? What old friends?”  
Ronny let out a chuckle and moved closer to her, talking in a lower voice.   
“People talk shit about you.”  
“They always have.”  
The big boy looked down at her and, almost unconsciously he kissed her hard. Lee let out a silent yell and tried to pull away, but he was too strong. He tried to add tongue to the kiss, but her lips were harshly pressed.   
She finally pulled away.   
“Don’t you dare to do that ever again. You should forget about me too.”  
She walked towards the door and opened it, but heard his voice again.  
“What if I hurt the boy before your birthday comes?”   
“Then the deal is over.” Lee replied, daring him.   
“And after?” Ronny wasn’t as stupid as everybody thought.  
“You won’t.” And she slammed the door shut.   
Ronny sat over the teacher table and crossed his arms over his chest again, frowning with the eyes focused on the door.   
“We will see.”

When Lee left the room Kristen was still there at the corridor, waiting for them to come out. She had the same worried face and she looked for Ronny with her eyes when she saw Lee coming out, but he was still inside.   
Lee walked past by her and pushed her hard with one hand, not even looking at her. The girl crashed against her locker ostentatiously and almost fell on the floor, letting out a loud scream of pain and surprise.   
“What the fuck do you think you are doing!”  
But Lee didn’t look back or seemed like she even heard Kristen speak. She just kept walking outside of the building to the field, knowing Niall was there having his lunch at the bleaches. But before going to look for him she rested her back against the closed front door and shut her eyes hard, controlling her strong emotions and panting heart. Her eyes had a weird shine, they were wetted by tears but she was not sad.   
She was so mad.   
She wanted to come back to the corridor and hit her hard, hit her until she was bleeding and crying and tell her that she was the biggest piece of shit she ever knew, even worse than Ronny. Because, at least, Ronny was true; he was just the same inside and out. Kristen pretended to make people believe that she was an angel inside as well, but she was even worse than Lee herself.   
Kristen fucked up _everything_.   
She threw her hands up to her face and covered it, letting out a harsh sob. Then, when she felt her heart come back to her normal beating, she blew her hair behind her shoulders and started to walk while taking a deep breath.   
_“Calm down, Lee.”_  
She was right; Niall was quietly eating his lunch on the last stool of the bleachers, as usual. When he saw her walking towards him he started to feel uncomfortable and looked around himself, not understanding why was she doing it. They usually didn’t talk to each other during school hours.   
But Lee sat next to him without saying a word and stayed like that for long minutes, until Niall couldn’t take the pressure.  
“Is something wrong, Lee?”  
She shook her head.   
“I talked to Ronny.”  
“Really?” He said, surprised. “What did he say? What did you say?”  
“He won’t do anything to you ever again. We made a deal.”  
Niall frowned and tried to look at her in the eyes, but she looked away.  
“What kind of deal?”  
“It doesn’t matter.” She replied coldly. “It just… was necessary.”   
“What kind of deal, Lee?” He asked again, but the closest he got of a response was a strong sigh that sounded like a sob.   
He took the girl by her arm and forced her to look at his eyes. Hers were red, and her rimmel was spread under her eyes.   
“Have you been crying, Lee?”  
“Niall, stop asking, it is ok, I swear. Nobody will bother you anymore. Not Ronny, not his friends.”  
He nodded, but he felt like something was very, very wrong.   
They stayed like that for long, sitting next to each other but not speaking. When the bell was about to ring Niall looked at her again.  
“Let me kiss you.” He said in a low murmur. Lee looked at him with worried eyes. “Please. I want to.”   
She nodded softly and let him press his mouth against her. Their lips barely touched, but it was enough. The kiss lasted for long seconds and they kept their eyes closed and their hands holding, hidden by their bodies. It was the kind of kiss that make everything else disappear.   
Luckily, nobody saw the secret kiss.   
“Thanks.” Niall murmured while resting his forehead against hers, his eyes still closed and his fingers clenching tighter around Lee’s. “Thank you, Lee. I don’t know what would I be doing without you.”  
He meant it.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19.  
The next two weeks at the Atwood High School were busy for almost everybody, including the teachers. The end of the second term was very close and people were running from one side of the building to another with books and papers. The same was happening at the building of the middle school, which was a few meters away from the high school building, separated by a long green ground and the field.   
People kind of forgot about Lee and Niall because they were too busy in their own stuff, and the couple was grateful. However, they didn’t kiss or spend much time together while being in school; they didn’t want to give something to talk about to anybody.   
Anyway, the rumors were still going around there. Some people said that it was a lie, that Niall could never date Lee; some others said that they just fooled around a few times; the nicest one thought that they were a cute couple and most of the guys were more than jealous.   
Only one person was actually happy about it apart from Lee and Niall, and it was Hunter. Through those days he got closer to Poppy, who looked sadder than usual. She was still the same around Niall, though, and she acted like she was very happy about it.   
Niall knew she wasn’t.   
But the two most horrible weeks of the last three months were over, and everybody was excited about it. Girls asking her friends if they could meet during the two weeks off they had, teachers sending some work for the break, guys preparing massive parties with tons of hot chicks…   
Nobody asked Lee or Niall what were they going to do on those fourteen days, but they were dying to know it. They wouldn’t have said the truth anyway.  
 _“I’ll go clubbing.”_ Would have said Lee.  
 _“I’ll sleep and eat.”_ Would have said Niall.   
But it wasn’t true. Actually, they were going to spend the first week alone at a house next to nothing but a very little village that was a few kilometers away from it. Lee’s family had it for some especial occasions, but most of the time it was rented by a couple or a group of friends.   
_“We have to leave before the second week end because two people are coming.” Lee said. “But you’re going to love it. It’s very quiet and nice.”  
“The perks of being rich.” Niall joked then. _  
Only them and Niall’s mother knew it. Lee told her dad that she was going there with Kristen and Ronny -and laughed sarcastically when her parents believed her-, but Niall didn’t have any alibi. His mom said it was ok, but also said she didn’t want to have grandchildren yet and gave him two packages of six condoms. Hunter suspected it as well; he knew that his sister wasn’t going to go with Ronny and Kristen, but he said nothing.   
Lee noticed that her brother was acting kind of weird around her lately, and tried to talk to him, but she got nothing.   
_“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m the same as always.”_  
And to show her he messed her hair and punched her arm gently -but hard enough to make her whimper in pain- and then ran away when she started to yell. But the truth is that something was happening with Hunter.   
He was starting to like Poppy more and more, and dislike Niall more and more. Hunter got really close to Poppy, who really needed someone to talk to, and picked him. Probably because he was Lee’s brother and she felt some kind of bond to Niall, but Hunter felt like she friend-zoned him.   
If you don’t know what is that, I’ll tell you. Imagine two circles in your mind. Inside of one of them, in caps, you can read PEOPLE I WOULD DATE, and touching it, there is another one saying PEOPLE I WOULDN’T DATE. In the figure that forms between the two circles you can read another words. FRIEND-ZONED PEOPLE. The people that are in that kind of circle that forms are friends of Poppy, close ones, so close she doesn’t feel attracted by them and, apparently, would never feel.   
Hunter was there, and he blamed Niall.   
So, he was quite happy he left with his sister because he couldn’t manage to see him everyday at his house, walking around there like it was his. 

Lee and Niall arrived at the place at night the first day of Easter. It was a wood house with one bedroom, a kitchen inside of the living room and a bathroom. It also had a soft porch and a smokestack, nothing else. It smelled like home.   
_“So, what are we going to do now?”_  
The truth’s that the only _thing_ they did for the first three days and nights was each other. They spent the hours at the house, and made love everywhere. Niall liked to do it in the bed, but the girl liked to change places. He laughed at himself every morning while looking at the two packages of condoms his mom gave him and saw them almost empty, remembering how he said to his mom that she was exaggerating.   
_“Twelve condoms for seven days are more than enough.”_ He said.   
Niall still remembers perfectly that one night, the fourth night, when he won in the battle of places. The girl was already asleep, and Niall was staring at her.   
Lying on the bed, her back to him, she was breathing mildly. Niall, however, was afraid even to breathe; he didn’t want to break that beautiful silence.   
In the darkness of the bedroom, he was dreaming about the curve her back drew and caressing it with his eyes again and again, hoping to remember those goose bumps in her skin forever.   
Suddenly, she turned around and faced him, her eyes closed and her lips showing a half smile. Underneath her light pajamas blouse he could see a skin even softer than the pajama itself. In her dream she sighed, saying his name.   
And the boy smiled, suddenly understanding why it is so easy to fall in love sometimes. He moved nervously under the light sheets, which were still wet from their sweat. His eyes landed over Lee again and he saw that her tanned skin was shining with the light of the moon that was incising over her sweat.   
He got up from the bed like every night, and walked outside of the house, to the porch. He sat on the wood floor and rested his head over an also wood pillar. It took him around ten minutes to start talking, enough time for Lee to get up as well and walk after him without making any kind of sound.  
The girl had noticed that the boy left the previous three nights just like that one. He used to be away for around twenty minutes, and then slipped inside of the bed next to her again, spooning. She didn’t mind at first, but four nights straight were suspicious. She knew he wasn’t doing anything bad, but she was curious.   
Outside the night was warm, but Lee took a sweatshirt anyway. Her naked feet didn’t make any noise but the gentle crack of the wood floor. She saw Niall sitting on the porch from the doorframe and heard him talking. She frowned and listened closer.   
“…I don’t know what is this. I can’t believe that she is here with me. I sometimes feel so scared of everything, I wonder if she is just lying to me and having a laugh with Ronny… It sometimes feels like a big, big joke, but then it isn’t… Then she looks true.” Lee didn’t understand anything. Who was Niall talking to about her? “It feels like in the movies, the stupid butterflies and everything. I really love her, Dad.” The girl gasped, understanding. She thought she should leave him alone since, technically, it was a private conversation, but she couldn’t move a muscle. “These four nights have been amazing, and when she kisses me or looks at me or simply… does the most little things, even makes a sandwich for herself, all those fears I have when she’s not with me fade. I know this sounds typical and corny and stupid, but it’s true. I feel like I can beat Ronny ten thousand of times if she’s by my side.”  
“I bet you do.”   
Niall turned around immediately, frightened. When he saw Lee’s figure he breathed again, sinking his shoulders.   
“You scared the hell out of me.”  
Lee giggled and sat next to him, distractedly playing with one of his fingers. They spent a few minutes without saying anything.   
“Were you talking to your dad?” Lee broke the silence. Niall nodded. “I am sorry for listening to your conversation.”  
“It is a monologue, so it’s ok. I don’t care.” Niall’s voice sounded a bit cold.   
“You miss him a lot, don’t you?”  
He didn’t reply and Lee moved her hand away, feeling out of place there in the porch. It wasn’t that Niall was mad at her or anything, but whenever he went to talk to his dad -which became a habit, it made him feel better-, he was somewhere else.   
It took him time to come back to Earth and notice she was next to him. He also noticed the coldness on his fingers and his hand searched for Lee’s again, holding it so tight it almost hurt her. But she let him grab her hand and she pressed a kiss on his temple.   
“Is all of that true, Niall?” She asked in a whisper. “Are you sure you are in love with me?”  
Niall looked at her like the bare question was an offense. She smiled quite big and kissed his lips this time, getting up later but never leaving his hand.   
“Let’s go to bed again.”  
“I’ll be there in five minutes.” He said. Lee frowned a bit. “I promise, baby.”   
Those words felt weird in his mouth. He had never called any girl ‘baby’ apart from Rachel and maybe Barbara while joking. But he liked it, and he liked Lee’s reaction to it.   
“I’ll be waiting.” She replied.  
Niall stayed outside for exactly five minutes and entered again with his girl.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20.  
They finally decided to come out of the house and go for a trip in the village. It was an almost empty place next by a very little piece of sea with rocks instead of sand. Most of the village was hanging from an enormous cliff, and the rest was simply delimited by four or six big rocks that made a little lagoon, which got flooded when the tide was high.   
Lee told Niall that she used to go to that house more often when she was little, with her parents and brother, and she said she will never forget that one time they went in winter and the sea was furious and grey, roaring in anger. A harsh wind was hitting the waves and the waves were hitting the rocks, making great splashes against them and looking beautiful.   
The most beautiful thing Lee had ever seen, she said, until she met Niall. That made the boy blush and she laughed quite loud.   
“Don’t be silly.” Niall said.   
“I promise it’s true.” She replied, kissing under his jawline.   
They had dinner at a quite little pub in the center of the village. Everything they could see through the window was the immense night and a dog running over the asphalt from time to time. There was nobody at the bar apart from the two waiters, who were looking at them with curious eyes.   
A young waiter got closer to them and glanced at Lee friendly.  
“Are you new here?” He asked. It was obvious the question wasn’t directed to Niall.  
“Well, I have a house at the end of the cliff but it’s been a very long time since I came here. So, yeah, we are new.”   
“How long are you staying?” The other one asked from behind the bar while washing a dish.   
Niall was starting to get very annoyed and nervous by the way they were looking at her, so Lee smiled to the boy to try calm him down. He rolled his eyes back and she let out a little giggle.   
They had such a great capacity to communicate without words, they developed it in class.   
“Just three more nights.” Niall said this time. The two boys looked at him and it seemed like it was the first time they saw him.   
“Oh, then I think you should come to town to go to a little party with our friends.” Again, the waiter was talking to them but only to Lee. “Do you want our number so you can call us? It’s tonight, and the guys there will be great.”   
The waiter winked an eye at Lee and Niall raised one eyebrow.  
“No, thanks, we don’t want to go.” He said. The waiter moved his eyes to look at him.  
“Well, I was talking to her actually…”  
“You are very nice, but I don’t want to go either. We came here to rest from the city and spend some time together.”  
The waiter nodded with a little defeated smile and, when they were alone again, they looked at each other and both Niall and Lee laughed. They didn’t know why, actually it bothered Niall and made Lee very uncomfortable, but they just laughed. They loved the way things were.   
“You were too nice to them.” Niall said then, eating. “You should have been more like… The Lee I met.”  
“You think I changed?” She asked, frowning suggestively.  
“I think you are showing me the real you.” He mumbled almost to himself, humming a song while chewing. That was one of the things that made Lee love him so much, how he said everything so naturally yet so shy and insecure. “If it would have been me four months ago asking you to come to a party you would have laughed in my face.”  
“You could have never invited me to a party, because _you_ weren’t invited to them.”  
The boy raised his eyes to look at her with his mouth half open, a chip hanging from his fingers, frozen there before he could enter it into his mouth. Lee smirked.   
“That was cruel.” Niall spoke, smiling back.  
“That was the Lee you met.”   
Niall ate the chip and looked back at the two boys who were speaking quietly and glancing at Lee from time to time, like they were talking about her. An idea crossed his mind and she let out a soft naughty laugh.  
“Let’s do something.” He said in a whisper, pulling himself a bit up on the table to get closer to Lee. She nodded, loving that confidential tone. “I don’t want to pay for this crappy food to those crappy guys. Let’s get out of here without paying.”  
She smirked and looked at the waiters from the corner of her eyes, “That’s not the Niall I met either.”  
“As long as you like this one.”  
“I do.” She said, nodding and laughing. She felt the urge of kissing him, but she thought their mission was more important in that moment. They’ll have time for kisses later. “So, how we do it?”  
“You go out to take a drag and I stay here for two minutes. They don’t even notice me, they’ll be watching you, so they won’t see me getting out as well from the other door. When you see me, we run. It’s easy.”  
Lee ate her last chip and got up, grabbing a cigarette. She even walked to the boys and asked them for fire. She winked an eye at Niall before coming out. Two minutes and exactly five seconds later Niall was walking out from the pub as well. As he thought, the waiters didn’t even see him; they were just staring at the beautiful young woman through the glass doors from behind the bar. It was too late when they saw how Niall started to run, the girl following him.   
The two waiters jumped off the bar and ran behind them, but the couple had a great advantage, plus they were very used to run and the waiters spent their days there, trying to get some money. The money they just lost, but neither Niall nor Lee felt guilty for them.  
They ended up at some intimate, dark park close to the cliff. They could hear the waves roaring since the wind was starting to blow harder, making the water splash.   
They were out of breath and Niall let himself fall on the grass, next to Lee. They stayed like that for a while; just looking at the sky filled by starts while recovering the air their lost in their race.   
“It was fun.” Lee laughed then, turning her head to look at the boy lying next to him. Then, she pecked his lips. “We should do it more often.”  
“Did you see their faces? Poor people. If they see me again they’ll beat me.”  
“I won’t let them. I’ll beat them first.” She whispered, wrapping her fingers around his and moving closer to rest her chin over his chest, lying face down.   
“Aren’t I the one supposed to say that?” He giggled, still a bit out of breath, not sure if it was because of the race or because of the girl. “I’m the guy, I’m supposed to protect you.”  
“That’s quite outdated. Things have changed; now princesses kill dragons.”   
Niall looked at her dark eyes, even darker in the night, and saw the stars reflected in them. He pecked her lips again and said,   
“I would kill dragons, monsters and aliens for you. Tons of them. At the same time.”   
Lee’s smile was bright when she kissed him slowly. And they gave each other more kisses than stars were up in the dark sky. 

 

The night wasn’t as warm in town, where Hunter was walking on his own to meet some friends. He had to take a sweatshirt and he was closing it when he crashed onto what seemed an iron wall but was a chest. His eyes rose up to look at the giant in front of him and frowned, finding a very familiar face. The familiar face moved to the left and allowed him to see other three boys. The guy on the middle was Ronny.   
“Do you want something?”   
Ronny and his idiotic friends never scared him.   
“We want to talk to you.” Ronny said.   
“Go ahead.”  
The three boys looked at each other, but the look between Ronny and the big, blonde guy was different. It lasted more, and it gave him time to recognize him.   
He was Finn Cassidy, a lot of rumors about him were going around there. Some people said he killed a guy with his own hands, some others said that he had kittens for breakfast, but the most certain one was that he beat a guy with a lacrosse stick in a match. There was a video on YouTube of it.   
When he recognized him, he actually got scared. Ronny took his time to talk, causing Hunter’s legs to get ready to start running away as fast as he could. But the four guys didn’t touch a single lock of his brown hair.   
“We know you don’t like Niall Horan, just like us.” He said. “So we thought you could help us.”  
“Why would I? I don’t like you either.”  
Hunter’s eyes quickly moved to look at Cassidy, who didn’t move a muscle. He was looking at the boy impassively.   
“You could take your revenge.” Ronny murmured with a smirk.   
That word made Hunter frown and finally listen.   
“You staying at to your sister’s birthday party, aren’t you?” He asked. Hunter nodded. “We just need you to let us in. I would be there, but these guys aren’t invited. If Lee sees them she will kick them out, so you have to be very careful.”  
“Why do they want to come in?” Hunted asked, suspecting that something bad was in their minds.   
“Your sister won’t get hurt.” Ronny answered, reading his mind.  
“What about Niall?”  
A huge smirk appeared on their lips and Ronny spoke, “He will recover.”  
Hunter didn’t think much about it. He just nodded a couple of times and mumbled a simple ‘ok’, walking away quickly, trying to dissipate the feeling of guiltiness in his stomach.   
They said he would recover, didn’t they?

 

Although Niall knew she was true and he loved being in that way with Lee, just lying there and breathing each other, he still had something stuck in his mind. What the girl said at the pub, it didn’t bother him much, but it got him wondering something -he had been wondering about it during all those days, to be honest-.  
He wondered if they were there because she was ashamed of him. If she didn’t want anybody to see them together kissing or holding hands, if she didn’t want to go to that party because she didn’t want people to see who she was dating, even though those people didn’t know them.   
His mind was going crazy with that thought, so his lips formed the words. And Lee opened her eyes and raised them up to look at him.  
“You must be joking.” She said with an incredulous half-smile.   
“I… I am not saying you are ashamed of me of anything, Lee, I was just wondering if…”  
“No, you are saying exactly that, and I can’t believe it.” She sat up, crossing her arms over her chest. “You ask me if I took you here because I don’t want people to see us together? If I don’t want people to see us together it’s because of you, Niall. Because I don’t want anybody to bother _you_.”  
She was very upset. Niall tried to calm her down by taking her hand, but she moved it away.   
“You have no idea what I am doing to protect you. To battle those dragons and monsters and aliens you said, but there is a big difference here. Those monsters are real for me, they actually exist and they actually want to hurt you. And I am _only_ protecting you.”  
“You think I don’t know it? I don’t know they are real?” Niall frowned, sitting up as well and facing her. “Ronny has been bullying me since I came to America. I know very well that it’s real.”  
“Come on, Niall, don’t rub Ronny in my face again.” She said, getting up and moving nervously. “You say it like what he did to you in the past is all my fault.”  
Niall got up too and she took a step back; Niall took a step forward.   
“You have no idea what I’ve been through. You could, at least, try to understand me. Try to understand that I have doubts about you, that I am worried this is just a big joke and when we come back you will throw me to him and he will bully me again. Because, what if you still are the cold bitch that didn’t give a damn about me? And you want to protect your reputation? What if we come back and things are the same again, even worse because you are not there anymore?”  
Niall’s eyes were wet, and so were Lee’s. They stared at each other for long seconds until the girl finally let out the air she was holding in her lungs and threw her hands up to her face, rubbing them on her eyes.   
“You have doubts, don’t you?” She laughed ironically, shaking her head. “You shouldn’t, Niall. Do I look like I don’t care about you?”  
She actually didn’t. Lee, the cold bitch, just how Niall described her, was tearing for him even though she was trying her best not to.   
Niall stood in front of her, his hands inside his pockets, and then slowly shook his head after a couple of seconds. Lee laughed again and took a deep breath, looking up to the sky.   
“No, of course not.” She mumbled.   
She turned around and started to walk away quickly. Niall had his feet nailed to the ground until he finally came back to Earth and took his cap from the grass quickly, then following Lee’s steps.   
He found her looking down at the cliff from the security fence. The wind there was harder, and it made her brown hair blow behind her shoulders, along with her short t-shirt. Niall watched her like that for a moment, hypnotized. And he couldn’t help a smile, looking at his _girlfriend_.   
Yeah, the girl loved him. And he knew it.   
He walked to her and stepped behind her, wrapping his arms underneath her light t-shirt, feeling her cold and soft skin against his. He rested his chin on her shoulder and felt Lee slowly hold his hands.  
“I’m so sorry.” Niall whispered in her ear.  
“I love you, Niall, you should know that.” She said after a few seconds in a voice that was very hard to hear. “I promise you I do, although sometimes it seems like I’m still that rich bitch… You changed me. And I quite like it…”   
“I know, baby, I know it.” He replied, pressing her lips to her neck. Then, he laughed softly. “This just feels so surreal for me… I can’t understand why you love me, I feel like I am nothing compared to you.”   
“Well, this is perfectly real.”  
She moved her head lightly; enough to find his lips and kiss them sweetly, softly resting a hand in his cheek. She tasted like watermelon and   
When they broke the kiss Niall pulled her closer and said, “Let’s go home. The night is getting cold and want to lay in bed next to you.”


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21.  
When you’re in High School things happen too fast.   
You fall for the boy you are dating in a couple of weeks, and another couple of weeks later you have forgotten him. You fall on the floor in front of everybody and the next day everybody has forgotten it. You dance over a table at lunch and everybody laugh, but the minute later they are laughing at other thing.   
That’s why, when Niall and Lee came back to class, nobody cared anymore about them. But they did care about Lee’s birthday party, because everybody wanted to be invited but only a few were. When she came closer to anybody, their legs started to shake and they felt actually lucky that they got invited.   
That year, Lee was inviting less people than she did the years before. The people that were out felt betrayed, but Kristen and Ronny. The first one didn’t care because she had no interest in Lee anymore, she wouldn’t have gone even if Lee had invited her; the second one didn’t care because he knew he was getting in anyway.   
They had a deal.   
And that Saturday Lee’s parents left the house, as they did every year, to let their daughter prepare everything for the party. Liters and liters of alcohol and Coke filled the shelves along with no food. If they wanted to eat they had to bring their own stuff. That’s how it works, nobody cares about the ethyl commas.   
Lee’s phone kept vibrating all day with text messages and phone calls to wish her a happy birthday, but she and her brother didn’t expect the bell to ring yet.   
“Hunter, since you are not fucking helping me at all with this and you are going to drink from my fucking alcohol anyway, go and open the fucking door!” She yelled from the kitchen to her brother, who was playing to the X-Box in the living room. She closed a closet full of easy to break things and entered the ice in the fridge, then heard the bell ringing again. “For fuck’s sake, Hunter!”  
Lee could swear more than a sailor sometimes.   
“Ok, ok, relax, you crazy bitch.”   
“What did you just say?” She yelled again, and a smirk popped on the boy’s lips.  
“I said you are acting like Mom!” He replied while opening the door.   
Niall smiled wide when he saw Hunter -he hadn’t seen him in such a long time-, but the boy in front of him acted like the first time he ever saw him. Out of interest or kindness. Niall was too enthusiastic to even notice.  
“Hey, buddy.” He said, giving him a big hug. “Is your sister here?”  
“Yeah, in the kitchen.” He muttered.  
Niall entered and walked to the kitchen, letting Hunter standing in the middle of the hall with the latch still in his fingers. He was trying to remit that awful feeling in his stomach again, the feeling of guiltiness that he had though nothing had happened.   
At least not yet.   
Lee was tidying when she heard a soft voice singing behind her, in a low and melodic way; beautifully hitting each note. It surprised her how amazing that typical ‘happy birthday to you’ song sounded in Niall’s voice.   
She turned around and looked at the blond boy standing there, in front of her, looking back at her with his light blue eyes. He bit her lower lip and,  
“Happy birthday, love.”   
They kissed and felt as unstable as the nitroglycerine, their legs going weak. It always happened; never failed.   
The bag that Niall left on the floor moved and groaned quietly, kind of meowed. Lee frowned and looked at the boy, who let a half smile slowly curl up.   
“Is this for me?” She asked. Niall nodded.  
Lee got on her knees and opened the bag to find a ball of smooth hair, three coloured hair with a pair of ears and a long tail. Two bright green eyes looked up at her and a mouth full of sharp teeth meowed loudly.   
“Oh my God.” Lee murmured. “Is this… mine?”  
“Yeah, it’s yours. If you want it.” Niall laughed.  
“Of course I do.” She replied, her voice melting.   
She took the small body of the cat in her arms and rubber its head. The cat licked her hand.  
“Where did you get it from?”   
“Barbara works with abandoned animals, and… well, I asked her if she had a kitten that had three colours: brown, white and orange.”  
When Lee heard those three colours put together she had a flashback. Niall and her sitting at the small park next to her house. The gentle wind blowing his hair and the Sun making his eyes shine.   
_“This is where I come when I feel stressed, sad, angry or simply bored.” She smiled back, letting her back lay over the grass. “I found it two years ago; nobody ever comes here. Well, a kitten used to come here when I found it, but not anymore. She was cute, I called her Fudge.”  
Niall smiled at the name and asked,  
“How do you know it was a ‘she’?”  
“Because she had three colours: brown, white and orange.” Lee replied lowly and Niall, who was sitting, turned his face to look at her. “Only female cats have three colours.”  
Lee looked at the cat’s collar and read a name written in white with beautiful bolded letters.  
Fudge._  
“I’m sorry it’s not the same cat, I wish I could have found her, but I had no idea how did she look like and it would have been impossible… I just asked Barbara for the sweetest three-coloured kitty she had there, and she gave me this one…”  
“This one is perfect, Niall.” Lee cut him off, smiling wide and pecking his lips softly. “Perfect.”   
She raised her up above her head and played with her short legs, talking lowly to her. That was when, with the neon lights of the kitchen, she saw something shining through the cat’s hair. She looked closer and saw a golden chain, very light and thin, with a ring hanging from it.  
“That’s also yours.”  
Lee left the cat over the kitchen table and gently took of the chain with the ring on it, also golden. She looked at it for a long time, her eyes shining.   
“Look inside.” Niall said, and Lee could hear a smile on his voice.   
She looked to the inside wall of the ring and saw an inscription on it.   
_Truly, madly, deeply._  
“You have no idea how much I love you.” She murmured, looking at him in the eyes.   
“Oh, but I do.” He laughed, taking her by her waist and pulling her closer. He pecked her lips and smiled. “Because I love you _much_ more.”   
“You two are so sweet I’m going to puke.”   
Said Hunter behind them, who just entered the kitchen. They laughed and pulled away.   
Hunter caressed the cat’s head and nodded in approval.   
“Do you think Mom and Dad will allow you to have it?”  
“I don’t care if they don’t.” She shrugged, and then turned around with the chain in her hands. “Help me, Niall.”   
Niall put the collar in her long neck and she turned around again to look at him, smiling. She was stunning objectively, but an angel on Niall’s eyes.   
“How does it look on me?”  
“Absolutely perfect.”   
She threw her arms around the boy’s shoulders and kissed his whole face quickly, causing him to laugh.   
“So, when are we getting drunk?” Hunter asked after a long sigh. 

The party was going even better than what anybody could expect. The music was great, some people brought more alcohol and food, everybody was dancing and there were no ethyl comas. Probably a lamp or two were broken, but nothing else.   
Niall hid Fudge in Lee’s bedroom and rubbed her head.  
 _Niall murmured to her before closing the door, and the cat seemed to understand, purring in response.  
Now they were on the dance floor. The alcohol made Niall’s senses go turbid, but it didn’t stop him to keep staring at Lee. She was dancing with her arms up in and her hair was all over her face; she laughing. Not giving a fuck about anything. She noticed that he was staring at her and came closer very, very slowly, teasing him with her eyes. When she was inches away from him she turned around and pressed her body against his, grinding and teasing and finally kissing him all messy and rough.   
Yes, she definitely was an angel, but a fallen one.   
And they kept dancing and dancing and kissing and kissing and they felt free and young and nobody cared, they didn’t even look at them because everybody was doing the same. Those kids there, teenagers, young adults… whatever; they were enjoying that party like it was their last one.   
_Lovers of the night._  
“Happy birthday, Lee.” He repeated one more time into her ear, and she smiled. “I love you and I feel like I’m the most lucky guy in this damn world. I love you; you are a fucking miracle.”   
Lee smiled again and rounded Niall’s shoulders with her arms, pulling him closer in a desperate need to feel him, then closed her eyes and breathed in his neck. But when she opened her eyes she saw Ronny resting his back against the wall and drinking from a glass, steadily watching them. He smiled darkly when he noticed that the girl saw him, and she started to get nervous, her mind going blurry.   
“Niall.” She said in a shaky breath.   
“Yes?”   
“You love me, right? You mean it when you say it.”  
“Yes, of course.” He giggled, kissing her temple sweetly. But when he pulled away from her he saw her worried eyes and frowned. “Why are you asking? What happens?”  
“And you know I love you too, right? I truly do.”  
“Yes, yeah, yes… is something wrong, Lee? Your hands are shaking.”   
And he held them, but her eyes were still moving quickly, elusive.  
“You trust me, yeah? You know I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt you if it wasn’t… necessary.”   
Niall looked at her in the eyes and noticed how scared and out of herself she was, but then he looked deeper and saw himself in them, acting exactly the same.   
“Lee, what are you…”  
“Do you trust me or not, Niall.”   
After three long seconds he answered, “I do.”  
She managed to smile, but the smile broke by its sides. She kissed his closed lips long, just pressing them together, and Niall felt like it tasted too bitter and sad, it tasted like those last kisses on movies.   
“Good. I love you, Niall.”  
Then, she disappeared.   
She just moved away and looked at him for the last time before running away and disappearing among the people.   
Niall stayed there, standing in the middle of the dance floor that was the living room in the morning for a long time before shaking his head and walking outside of the house. _

_“Let’s do it quick.” Lee muttered, annoyed and anxious.  
She shut the door, making sure that nobody saw them, and closed it with the bolt. She turned around to see Ronny lying in her bed like it was his, a big smirk on his lips.   
“Why? Do you have something to do?”  
“Yes, I have a party downstairs.”  
Ronny chuckled.   
“The party is here, baby.” He sat up and took her by her waist, managing to kiss her on the lips.   
But she spoke first, “Here are the rules, _baby_. No kissing on the lips. No more ‘baby’. Your mouth won’t touch my vagina and I can give you a blowjob if you want, but you can only cum once.”  
“Let’s go to the real business, then.”   
She nodded a couple of times and then turned off the lights, closing her eyes.  
“Oh, I have my rules as well.” He replied immediately. “The lights stay on, I want to see you. And we will not use the bed, I want to fuck you over that table.”  
Ronny had everything calculated. He knew that Niall would go outside and he would see them, but Lee won’t see him because her back would be against the glass of the window.   
Lee simply obeyed and jumped over the table, opening her legs lightly. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath; trying to calm down the image of the first time she ever had sex and trying not to think that it was happening again, that a boy was forcing her. If she was going to do that, at least she could… well, not enjoy it, but tolerate it.   
Ronny, in front of her with his hips between her legs, noticed, and decided to suck on her neck to relax her -not because of her, but because he would enjoy it more if she was enjoying it as well-, but the cat started to meow, scared, from the bed, her two round eyes shining.   
Ronny groaned, bothered.   
“Since when do you have a cat? And why won’t it shut up?”  
“Why won’t you shut up instead?” She replied.   
“Mean. I like that.”   
Lee closed her eyes again, harder this time, and wrapped her fingers around his shirt, hoping for it to be quick. _

_Outside the night was warm and it was proclaiming the beginning of the summer. The stars up were shining with a weird spark, like they knew what was going to happen and wanted to advertise the boy or maybe cover their eyes. There was a scary smell flying on the air, the smell of alcohol and blood. Four young eyes were mischievously staring at Niall from a not very prudent distance, jumping on their feet, eager.  
And those eyes slowly came closer to Niall, who was innocently looking up to the sky. He finally noticed when the four boys were behind him, and he turned around quietly but aware.   
“Hey, faggot.”   
That was Finn Cassidy. He was Ronny’s best friend, and a very violent kid. He got suspended from the lacrosse team because he hit an opponent with the stick multiple times on his head and ribs, causing him to get a concussion and not be able to walk for a month and two weeks.   
The next two boys behind Cassidy were Sam Buckley and Josh… Josh something, Niall couldn’t remember. Both of them were the same as Cassidy, going around the corridors of the Atwood High School like it was their kingdom and mocking every boy and girl they saw.   
The last one was a tanned boy with dark eyes like burning coal. Those eyes; Niall knew them very well. The last boy on the back, behind the three older boys, was Hunter Fiddler. He didn’t look as cocky as the other ones; he seemed nervous and even scared. Not was scared as Niall, though.   
“What is this, Hunter?” Niall asked with a frightened smile.   
“Shut up. You will not talk to the boy, understand?” Cassidy spoke immediately, taking a step forward. Niall frowned and swallowed, but didn’t take a step back. He closed his fists and clenched his jaws, getting ready to do whatever that was needed. “You know, we are very sorry to do this… But Ronny is our friend, and asked us to. He told us to not hurt you too much but scare you a bit, just a bit. Do you know what means ‘to scare’ for me, Horan? Do you remember Chris Turner?” Of course Niall remembered Chris Turner, the guy Cassidy almost killed.   
“I do.” He said. And then, taking a deep breath, continued. “If he has any kind of problem with me, why doesn’t him come himself and beat me? It is four against one.”   
Niall looked straight at Hunter and he looked away, ashamed.   
“Ronny is busy.” Josh said, smirking. “He is inside the house fucking your girlfriend.”   
His heart went crazy and his whole body froze.   
“What?” He said in a murmur. “That is not true.”   
“Oh, but it is.” It was Sam Buckley this time. “Can you see that room? The one with the lights on? Look, big boy, look.”  
And he didn’t want to, but he looked up to the window of her bedroom.   
What Niall felt in that moment was indescribable. His knees went weak and he could have fallen on the ground without any hit from the guys, who were laughing at his expression. The world started to spin around and his lungs run out of air.   
“It looks like she doesn’t care about you as much as you thought.” One of them chuckled.  
“Shut up…” He whispered. His eyes were fixed on the window and on how the figures were moving, the back of his girlfriend slamming against the glass.   
“How could she? He’s just a loser. She never cared about him. She was just laughing at you, Irish boy.”   
“Shut the fuck up!” Niall yelled this time, walking towards Sam and stabbing his fist right into his mouth, causing a thread of blood to stream down his chin.   
“You don’t know what you just did, you fucking loser.” Cassidy smirked and did a signal to his friend to start acting. He seemed very happy that Niall did the first move.  
Sam was the first one to hit back, and he punched Niall exactly in the same place the boy did, but Niall got a river of blood. Josh came after that, hitting in his upper stomach and then kicking his shinbone. Niall fell on the ground, but somehow, didn’t feel any pain. His eyes were focused on the window with the lights on and shadows playing into the room. He didn’t care about the kicks, he didn’t care about Cassidy’s punches, he didn’t care about the young boy standing further than the others and looking at them with frightened eyes, or the blood blurring everything around himself until he couldn’t see anything anymore.   
_Punch, kick, punch, kick, punch, kick_ and a male voice yelling…  
 _“Leave him, Finn, you’re going to fucking kill him!”__

_Walking along the night, with nothing but the sound of his shoes echoing in the streets, the cold wind was entering his opened sweatshirt and eating his soul. His thoughts were freezing and that strange silence of the night was slowly flooding his mind too.  
 _Tap, tap, tap, tap…_  
The streetlights leaning down to look at him as he walked past by, feeling pity.   
His steps were starting to become faster, afraid of the long walk he still had, which seemed infinite. He felt like the large streets were turning into alleys until they disappeared and crushed him. He closed his sweatshirt and walked faster, trying to ignore the harsh, strong pain in his entire body and the blurry images moving around quickly.   
He was five minutes away from his house when he couldn’t take it anymore and fell on the ground, in the middle of the road._


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22.  
During the three days that Niall stayed at home, he got a few visits.   
The first visit was from Rachel and Alan. The little girl was holding Alan’s hand when she walked into the room, but pulled it away in the moment she saw Niall and ran to the room to hug him. She started to cry when she saw the bruises. Alan stayed in the frame, looking at him worried. In his eyes, someone had beaten a hero.   
“Don’t cry, baby girl, it doesn’t hurt.” He said, holding her.   
“It looks like.” Alan said from the frame while frowning.   
Somehow, he looked older, holding his crossed arms over his chest and looking at him like that. Niall didn’t know then but, for Alan, seeing him like that changed something. He wanted to be like Niall when he had grown up, but Niall hadn’t finished growing up yet.  
He stared at the bruises in his cheek and eye, the multiple slices, and the swollen lip. In that moment he decided he would never leave a friend alone when he’s having problems, but what he didn’t know is that there is a big difference between having problems and causing them before the other one attacks. He never was capable to distinguish both concepts, and it was his mistake.   
“You should see how did the other ones end.” Niall joked.

The second visit was from Poppy. He was very glad to see her; she really knew how to make him laugh and forget about the pain that he felt, physically and emotionally. She filled the emptiness of the room with her presence and it made Niall feel warm and happy.   
“That black eye looks good on you.” Was the first thing she said to him.   
She spoke for years and the boy listened to her carefully. She talked about what she did during the school break, about her new clothes and make up, about a puppy she saw on the street, about the flower that has her name. But she never mentioned the fight, neither Lee though she wanted to know about it bad.   
“You are amazing, Poppy.” Niall said suddenly, cutting her off in the middle of a story. “Thanks for being the best friend I have ever had. I’m sorry if I ever did something that hurt you, I didn’t mean to. I need you to be with me, especially now… Will you?”  
Poppy’s cheeks blushed and her heart stopped for a second. She acted like she didn’t care and said,  
“Will you let me finish?”  
But the corner of her lips betrayed her. 

The third visit was from Hunter.   
“I don’t want to see him.” Niall said to his mother. “Tell him that. Tell him that I don’t want to see him ever again.”  
His mother sighed and sat on the edge of her son’s bed, and took her time to answer.  
“Do you know how did you get to the hospital?”  
Niall shook his head.  
“He drove you there.”   
“Hunter doesn’t have a driving license.” He said, confused.   
“Let him in and he’ll explain everything to you.”   
Niall didn’t want to, but his mother’s voice and sight could convince anybody, plus the boy was very confused and intrigued about why and how did Hunter take him to the hospital, so he nodded. And his mother got up and went out of the room, talked to someone in a quiet voice and the door opened again.   
“Hey, mate. How are you?”  
And there he was, standing and not sure if he should come in or not. Niall did not answer to his question because it was obvious that he wasn’t ok.   
He stared at Niall for around fifteen seconds until he told him to come in. Hunter sat next to Niall, who sat up.   
“I’m very sorry, Niall.” He murmured. “I’m an asshole.”  
“What’s that that you brought me to the hospital?” Niall asked, and Hunter looked up to his eyes. “My mom told me. Is it true?”  
“Yeah…”  
“And why? Why did you let them hit me like that, then?”   
“I… I don’t know.” He took a deep breath. “I guess I was jealous.”  
“Jealous? Of me? What do I have that you don’t?” Niall was confused.   
“Poppy.”   
Niall looked at him and frowned, the boy looked away and blushed.   
“Do you…?” Niall didn’t need to finish; Hunter simply nodded. “And how do you expect me to know? Hunter, Poppy and I are only friends.”  
Hunter laughed in a hurt way and said, “But she is in love with you.” Niall frowned again. “She told me.”  
The blond boy let out a long, loud sigh and threw his head back, resting it on the wall.   
“I told Finn to leave you and then they ran away.” Hunter started to explain. “I ran away with them, I have to admit, but then I came back… And you weren’t there anymore. I couldn’t leave you there, on the floor, bleeding… I felt like shit. You are the best guy my sister ever had in her life… and I’m the worst one.” Niall shook his head. “I went out to find you, and I found you lying in the middle of the road.”  
“Hey, hey, hey, hey!” Hunter run towards Niall and tried to get him up, but he couldn’t move. “Niall, come on, help me a bit.”   
“Hunter…?” He asked, managing to open his eyelids, but they were too heavy.  
“Yes, it’s me. I’m here.”  
When the younger boy said that, Niall covered his head in a lame attempt to protect himself, his drunk mind and hurt body thinking that he was there to finish him off.   
“No… don’t do that, Niall, I won’t hurt you.” Hunter laughed softly in a sad way and felt deeply guilty. Niall looked helpless. “I’m so sorry, Niall.”  
Finally, Hunter dragged Niall to one side of the road as he kept saying nonsense things. Hunter made him rest his back against a brick wall and the boy’s head fell to one side, starting to fall asleep.  
“No, no, no, Niall, don’t fall asleep.” He took Niall’s face between his hands and made him look at him. “Come on, focus on me, don’t fall asleep, ok? Please. I’m trying to help you. Can you walk?”  
The only thing Niall could do was asking, “Where is Lee?”  
Hunter groaned and looked around himself for help. He couldn’t take Niall to the hospital because he couldn’t even move, and he wasn’t strong enough to lift him. He couldn’t call an ambulance either because that would take too much time, but he had an idea. He still didn’t have a driving license, but he was learning.   
Breathing deep, he said,  
“I am going to get my dad’s car, ok?” He said to Niall, whose eyes were closed. “Fucking hell, Niall, if you want to see my sister ever again don’t fall asleep.” That made Niall come back and open his eyes heavily, looking at him like he was a stranger. “I’ll be right back. Give me ten minutes. Don’t you fall asleep.”   
If you fall asleep after several hits on the head, just as many as Niall got, you have a quite big probably to not wake up ever again. Your mind gets to rest and loses its consciousness, getting into a state of coma. Anyway, Niall didn’t fall asleep. He kept looking to a streetlight directly, the white and strong light hurting his eyes and causing his headache to get worse, but he didn’t care. What was actually hurting him was the image of Lee getting slammed against the window by Ronny. He couldn’t stop thinking about that, and that’s the only thing he still remembered about that night.   
“Thanks for coming back for me.” Niall muttered.   
“No.” Hunter replied immediately. “If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have needed any help.”   
They didn’t say anything for around two minutes, until Niall broke that silence.   
“Girls fuck up everything.”   
That made Hunter laugh.  
“Completely true.” He nodded. “They do what they want; we do what we can.”   
Another silence surrounded them for a few minutes, but it was Hunter who broke it this time.   
“Can I ask you a question?” He said it like it took him a great effort. Niall simply nodded. “How do you know when you’re in love?”  
That made Niall laugh.   
“I don’t know. You just do, I think. But it does feel like in movies and corny books… I mean, the butterflies and everything… But harder. Like… rougher. Like you’re in the edge of a cliff all the time and it depends on that person that you fall or not, and sometimes you feel safe and happy but the next moment you are about to fall and… end.”   
Hunter stared at him with big eyes and frowned eyebrows.   
“I don’t think it should feel like that, Niall.”   
Niall moved his eyes and looked at him for long seconds. He knew Hunter was right, he knew it shouldn’t feel like that; he should feel safe all the time, but he was only scared. Especially in that moment, with the wound over his cheekbone still bleeding and his wasted heart consuming. He still had that image in his mind, and his knees got weak every time he thought about it. He was looking down from the edge of the cliff.   
“I know it shouldn’t.”   
Hunter gave him a friendly punch on the ribs and Niall tried to hide that it actually hurt him, but his smile broke.   
“I should leave now. You have to rest.” Hunter got off the bed and walked to the door, and when he was about to close it behind his back he turned around. “Lee is on her way.”  
He didn’t give Niall any time to answer, he left him there with his mouth opened and his arm on the air in a hint of stopping the boy.   
When he heard the door closing he tried to calm himself down by taking a deep breath, but it turned into a shaky sob. He shook his head repeatedly until he felt dizzy and his tears were making a pool on his eyes.   
He got up and went downstairs.   
“Niall! What are you doing? Are you ok?” His mother asked.   
“Yes, I only needed to get out of my bedroom for a while, I’m feeling better…”  
He was lying. His whole body was hurting, but his heart was pounding so hard he thought he would go crazy if he didn’t get up from the bed. He ate a sandwich and was going to his bedroom again when he heard the bell ringing. He quickly looked at his mom and shook his head no, but the woman opened the door anyway.   
“Hello, eh… I’m sorry, can I come in? I want to talk to Niall.”   
It was Lee’s voice. Though he was desperate to see her again and kiss her lips and feel her warm body against his, he kept shaking his head to his mother. She looked at Niall and then at Lee, not sure of what to do.   
“Wait a second.”   
Niall’s mom left Lee standing in the doorframe and went to talk to her boy, who was paralyzed on the first stair.   
“I don’t want to see her. Tell her I will see her at school. Please, Mom. This is not like Hunter; she has nothing to explain to me. Tell her to leave by now.”   
It wasn’t necessary, though. The girl got inside the house and heard him speaking those words. When Niall noticed she was there, looking at him, he felt like dying. His knees went weak and his eyes pooled again.   
“Niall.” She breathed in a bare whisper. “Please.”   
But he shook his head again and turned around, going upstairs and leaving her there, at his living room, looking ahead to where he just disappeared.  
“I am sorry, honey.”

Lee doesn’t remember very well how did she end up at Ronny’s house because her mind was too blurry and stubborn by anger, but she remembers pretty well how she found his big, expensive motorbike parked at one side of the road, and how she kicked it and made it fall with a loud _crash_.   
“Get out there, you fucking asshole!”   
She was out of herself. She wanted to hurt him as bad as he hurt Niall, he wanted to make him suffer and leave him on the floor crawling for help.   
Ronny got out from the house quickly with wide eyes and a confused look.   
“ARE YOU MENTAL OR WHAT?” He yelled to the girl while lifting his motorbike. He was lucky that the car was at the garage. “Fucking crazy bitch!”  
She pushed him roughly on his chest, almost making him fall over the motorbike, and spoke to him really close, inches away from his face.  
“I fulfilled my part of the deal. You didn’t, Ronny.”  
“It wasn’t me who hit the boy. Maybe he teased them.”  
Lee looked into his eyes for a few seconds before slapping hard on his cheek. Ronny immediately threw his hand up to his hurt cheek; she slapped him real hard.   
And she murmured with tearful eyes, “You’ll pay for what you did.”  
She was walking away when the boy answered, “I bet you I won’t.”   
Lee gave his motorbike another kick before leaving the garden, and it crashed on the floor again getting a broken rearview. 

_“Please, let me in. He is my boyfriend and my brother is inside with him. Please.”  
The doctor nodded, not very convinced, but let Lee in. When she opened the door Hunter was inside, walking quickly from one side to the other of the room, and Niall was lying on a bed with bleeding wounds.   
She held her breath.   
“I called his mother thousand of times but she doesn’t answer.” Hunter said to his sister. “This is my fucking fault. And yours. What the fuck were you doing with Ronny, Lee?”  
Lee didn’t answer; she surely didn’t hear him. She walked toward Niall and sat in the chair next to the bed, holding his cold hand in hers. The boy opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times to the blinding lights of the room.   
“Mom?” He asked, frowning. “Where… where is Dad? Is he ok? The doctor told me he’d be ok…”  
Lee looked at Hunter with a scared look in her eyes.   
“They gave him tons of soothing to remit the pain. He’s high as fuck.”   
She nodded and spoke in a quiet voice,  
“No, baby, it’s me, Lee.”  
“Lee?...”  
“Yes, Lee. I’m here, with you.”  
She was crying.   
“I trusted you… You told me to trust you and I did… But you were with him, Lee…”  
He whimpered and shut his eyes hard, struggling in the bed.   
“But now I’m with you, see?”  
She kissed her hand. He shook his head.  
“No.” He muttered.   
“What?”  
“No.” He repeated. “Leave. Go away. Leave, Lee.”  
He removed his hand.   
“What?” She said again in a weak whisper.  
“I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you…” _


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23.   
_There is no need to tell me that you lose your mind for her hips. I already know that she has that smile and those ways, and the swirl she forms in every movement she makes.  
But I have also seen her being herself, and I promise that can’t be written down in words.  
That’s why, when you tell me to look at how she drinks beers, how she dances over the sand, and how easy it seems to fall in love… I laugh. When you tell me that she can be the only fucking reason to keep living and fuck off the self-destruction, that the kisses from certain mouths taste better… That’s a story I know since the first day she looked at me and told me her name.  
But you don’t know what is to fall from a cliff and she suddenly appears to tell you,  
“Come on, let’s take a beer and you tell me.”  
You don’t know what is it to wake up and see her squirm and yawn, and hug you, and then you have no idea how to get rid of the whole world.  
So you would suppose that I am the first one to understand that you lose your mind for her legs and the reason for her words, and your balls for the minimum touch of her cheek. That the suspicions, the dissimulations when her ass walks by, the discomfort she might cause to your pride, are things that I already know.  
I want to say that you can’t tell me anything about verses, that it’s been a while since I write mine.  
That I also see her, that when she walks under the sky only the crazy looks at the sky. That I know how she looks down, raises her eyes and bites her upper lip. That I have heard her voice in a whisper, and in a moan, and in a secret. That I know her scars and the place where you have to touch her on the left side of her waist to make her laugh, that I know about her knees and the way her fingerprints caress the air.  
That I have memorized her telephone number as well, but also the amount of steps to her house and the times she blinks before leaning down to kiss you.   
That I not only know her last nightmare, but also the ten hundred before. And if there is someone who doesn’t have enough balls to say no to her, then it’s me, because I have more liabilities with her body than any other man will ever have with the moon. That I know her face when she lets herself go, given to the fucking miracle that her only existence is.  
That I have seen her flying over poets that worth it much more than these fingers, and I have seen her competing against each dawn through the window. Don’t tell me about landscapes if you haven’t seen her body.  
That only dreams can land over the three letters of her name.  
That I understand you.  
That I write about the same thing.  
About the same girl.  
That we all have reasons, but I have much more than you._tic toc will calm her down. It’s like a heart for them, you know? My dad taught me. We had a cat in Ireland.”   
Naming his dad gave Niall a flashback from when he was at the hospital. He remembered he dreamt about him, about those two days he was at the hospital battling to live, but lost.   
He shut his eyes for a second and swallowed hard.   
“Thanks. It made me feel pretty bad. You know, her crying…”  
“My mother let you in, didn’t she?”  
Lee nodded.  
“What is wrong about that?”  
“I thought I told you I’ll see you at school.”   
“It’s Monday and you didn’t come.”  
The girl looked at him in the eyes, but he didn’t show any emotion on them. They were cold as ice, and that scared Lee so much she had to look away.   
“My mom wants to denounce those guys, you know?” Lee looked back at him immediately, thinking about her brother. Niall saw it in her eyes. “Finn, Ronny, Sam and Josh. Not Hunter. Hunter drove me to the hospital. He’s a good kid, it was Ronny’s fault.”  
“I know.”  
“She even wants to denounce the school, for letting students bully other students and not doing anything about it… I told her that’s stupid. I told her that students bully students everywhere in the world, but they chose me. I also told her that, if she denounces those guys, they’d come after me and finish me off. Finn Cassidy had no fear in his eyes while he was hitting my head. I think he would be happy if he had killed me. He was enjoying it.”   
Lee’s face cringed in horror and she shook her head, his eyes looking red again. She looked at the slices in his face and the black eye, and the swollen lip. She didn’t want to think about how did his torso and legs look like.   
“The doctor told me he could have, though. He hit me hard in the head, repeatedly. One more hit and I wouldn’t be here. That makes me feel really weird, me not being here anymore… He told me I am lucky because I am Irish, and Irish people get all the luck. I don’t think so.”   
Lee was saying the same thing again and again in such a quiet voice it was very hard to understand, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”  
Niall had been cold as ice all that time until then, when he heard those words coming from her. He moved his hand to her face and made her look at him by grabbing her chin. When he spoke it was a broken whisper.   
“Your brother saved my life. If I had fallen asleep at the road I would have never woke up. Do you know how did he keep me awake, Lee?”  
She shook her head, not able to talk.  
“He told me _‘If you want to see my sister ever again don’t fall asleep’_.”  
That made Lee let out a soft laugh that turned into a sob, and she unconsciously sat closer to Niall, looking for his warm body. Niall’s chin trembled.   
Lee started to talk very quickly and nonsense, desperate. “Niall, I’m just really sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone. I knew something was going to happen. I knew Ronny wouldn’t just…”  
“I have a question, just a simple question, Lee.” He cut her off. “Did you have sex with Ronny?”  
“Yes.” She replied after looking at him deeply. “Yes, I did, Niall.”  
Niall looked away and his face was the image of the lover destroyed in pain and panic. Two think tears rolled down his cheeks and his low voice spoke with broken anger,   
“I was so stupid for trusting you, so damn stupid… I would have known that you would fuck another guy eventually because I’m not that important for you. Was it a game, Lee? Hope it was fun at least. Oh, and congratulations, you won. You fucking destroyed me.”   
All that speech made Lee nothing but mad. How little he knew and how much he was speaking.   
“You think so, Niall?” She got up and faced him. “You really think this is a game for me? You still think I don’t care about you, you think I don’t love you?”   
Niall didn’t reply, but didn’t look away either. They held their sights for a while before she got a piece of paper from her bag and left it over his bedside table.   
“Read that and you might understand me.” She said in a low yet rough voice.   
Then, she left the room. 

The next visit was from Barbara and Jagger. They got to know about it that Monday at school, and went to his house in the eve.   
They stayed with him for around two hours and asked him a lot of questions, but never about the fight. It was nice for Niall, just talking to someone relaxed. It felt like being with Poppy, like being with friends that know you just want to disconnect from the worst things on life like the first heartbreak or the first nosebreak.   
However, Jagger was pretty mad. Barbara did almost all the talking, Jagger just stayed there looking ahead with an angry sight on his eyes. In a moment of silence, he spoke  
“Those kids. They think they are the owners of everything; they walk around there like this world is their kingdom. I’m just happy that they are getting into real world after this summer and they’ll see that they are nothing, pieces of trash nobody wants.”  
“Come on, Jack, it’s done. Niall is ok.”  
“Sure he is. And if he wasn’t, those assholes wouldn’t be either. I would have killed them with my own hands.”  
Jagger was a very sensitive person. Everything was he felt was overwhelming and violent. And, although it made him scary sometimes, Niall was glad he was like that. It looked like, after all, Jagger loved the boy. Niall always doubted it, thinking that Jagger disliked him -though Barbara kept telling him the opposite-, and it made him feel very bad because he admired Jagger. Now the boy was happy, knowing that his teacher also admired and loved him, knowing that Barbara was right.   
Because Barbara is always right. 

The next day, at 11:30AM, Niall got another visit. He didn’t go to school on Tuesday either, but he wouldn’t get rid off school for much more, he had to go on Wednesday. He had to face real life.   
As I said, he got another visit in the morning. He just woke up from a nightmare and was looking at Lee’s letter between his fingers; he hadn’t opened it yet. He took a deep breath and was about to do it when the door slammed open and a flame of red fire entered the room. That flame of red fire was Poppy.   
“Good morning, sunshine!” She said happily, and took a photo of him with a big blue camera. The picture popped out from it and she took it, shaking it. “Look at what I’ve got!”  
She sat on the edge of his bed and threw an old Polaroid to her friend, who caught it with clumsy asleep hands.   
“Be careful, baby, it’s older than Mr. Thomson.”  
Mr. Thomson was their real old headmaster.   
“How did you get this? And shouldn’t you be on class?”  
Poppy looked at him for a few seconds while frowning, considering what to say. She opted for the truth as the picture was slowly showing.   
“Well, I looked at my agenda this morning and saw we had Biology today, and I thought _‘Yay, maybe Niall is back!’_. But then I went to high school and asked, and they said you didn’t come, so I thought… ‘ _Am I really going to take Biology without Niall?’_ ”  
The boy laughed, and she threw the picture to him. He looked scared and asleep, with massive eyes.   
Poppy kept telling her story.   
“But suddenly I remembered I always wanted a Polaroid and I magically had 70 dollars in my pocket (I’m not going to tell you where did I get them from, but I assure you I didn’t sell my body) and I went to every antique shop in town until I found this one. And guess what, it was 15 dollars!” She smiled quite big and looked up to the ceiling. “It was pretty fun. We need to go together to those stores, you’d love it.”   
He sure will. He also loved when Poppy was so hyper and charming, and making plans with him. She always made him feel happy.   
“Your life is so intense.” Niall joked.   
“When I bought it I came here. It took me three hours, but I still have three more with you if I don’t get caught. Let me see that picture.”  
Niall handed her the picture and she laughed.   
“What did you tell my mom?” He asked while she was still looking at the photo.   
“The same as you.” She replied with a shrug. “You know, this picture looks good.”   
“Oh, come on, I look horrible.”   
“No, really, that black eye looks good on you. I already said it didn’t I? You look like a tough one. And you usually look like a lost puppy.”   
“Do I?”  
“Aha.”  
She left the picture over the mattress and sat next to Niall heavily, taking the camera from his hands and grinning at him.  
“Smile!” And shoot.   
The picture popped out and she dried it.   
“This one is for you.” She gave him the picture they just took. “And this one is for me.” And kept the other one.   
They stayed like that for a while, kind of laying on the bed, Poppy’s head resting over Niall’s shoulder, both of them listening to each other’s breathings. Niall left a gentle peck on Poppy’s forehead, and she looked up at him.   
Yes, the girl was in love with him, and yes, it hurt her that he couldn’t love her back in that way, but she was glad that he could love her in any way. That’s how love works, isn’t it? You could have anything from the other, it’s always enough as long as you have _something_.   
“What were you doing when I came in?” She asked in a soft voice, back to the normal Poppy.   
And Niall replied after a while, “Nothing.”  
But Poppy didn’t believe him.   
“So, what’s that paper over your bedside table?”   
Niall looked down at her and cocked an eyebrow.   
“You are a smart one, aren’t you?”  
“No, I’m just a girl.” She replied for any explanation, and sat up to take the letter.   
“No, no, Poppy. Don’t read it.”  
“Why not?”  
He took a deep breath, “Lee wrote it for me. She says I would understand why did she… cheat, if I read it.”   
“Then just do it.” She said while frowning.   
“I… I can’t.”  
“Why?”  
Niall shrugged and Poppy rolled her eyes back, taking the letter and opening it. She gave it a quick look before looking back to Niall, who was watching her with worried and curious eyes.   
“I’ll read it aloud for you, ok? It’s not that scary, you’ll see, it’s just… words.”  
She knew it would be personal, and she knew it would hurt her feelings, but she also knew it would help Niall.  
“Are you ok with it?”  
And he finally said, “Go ahead.”


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24.  
She took the letter between her hands and looked at it dramatically, coughed a couple of times and said,  
 _“Dear Santa…”_  
“Oh, please, Poppy!” Niall protested and threw a pillow to her.   
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She laughed. “You were looking so serious I thought you should laugh a bit.”  
Niall’s heart was pounding really fast and Poppy noticed, so she took a deep breath and looked towards the boy one more time before starting to read in a soft and slow voice,  
I would have loved to tell you all about this face to face, but I knew you weren’t going to let me, so I thought I should write you this letter. I’m sorry I’m not as good as you at writing but I’m not a poet like you are, I’m just… Lee.   
First of all, you need to know that I do love you. Yes, I slept with Ronny, but it was to protect you. Remember that day at the bleachers? I told you we made a deal. Well, here’s the deal: he wouldn’t touch you if I had sex with him. He promised he wouldn’t hurt you at all; not him, not his friends. But he broke the promise, and I didn’t. I’m very sorry. I tried actually everything to keep them away from you, and if that’s called cheating, then I’m a cheater. I wish I could have protected you, but he lied to me. Please, forgive me. I did it because I love you.  
I also want you to know that since you got in the hospital and told me to leave I thought you might be right. Maybe I should leave you since I’m only causing you pain. Hunter told me about your talk, about what you told him that love is for you… I think you depend too much on me, Niall. I mean… it shouldn’t depend on me that you fall or not from that cliff you talked about. Nobody should be anybody’s whole world. I don’t know. I’m a mess right now, but I needed you to know. We really need to talk about this…  
I’ll come back tomorrow.   
I love you.  
When Poppy raised her eyes up to look at Niall he was crying. He looked back at her and his eyes seemed much bluer, shining with tears.   
“Is she breaking up with me by letter?” He asked in a whisper.  
“Well, I… I don’t know. She said she wants to talk to you…”   
“She is breaking up with me by a letter.”  
Poppy felt horrible, but something inside her felt a selfish joy. If Lee and Niall broke up, she would have her chance with the boy, and she wouldn’t waste it as Lee did… She told herself that she could fix everything.   
“She says she’s doing it for your good.” Poppy murmured, looking down at the letter.   
“I wish she would stop doing things for my good without asking me.”   
Niall looked away and moved his hand up to his eyes covering them, trying to hold back his tears.   
Poppy didn’t know what to say, so she though she should act instead. She sat next to him again and rounded his waist with her warm arms, pulling him closer and resting her forehead against his wet cheek.   
“Come on, stop crying. The Niall I like doesn’t cry, he’s always happy and fun to be around…” She whispered. “I know you love her but… Well, she’s not the only thing in this world. There are more girls and more… everything.” Niall was nodding at her low words and his crying was stopping, so she thought she should just talk randomly. “Think about the bright side… You look sexy with those scars. And when you get better, probably this weekend, we will hang out together and get some pints and get really drunk. Then we can go and do whatever you want. We should go to the antique shops. I bet it’s much funnier while you’re drunk…” Poppy shut her eyes hard and her heart stopped. She took the longest breath in her life before saying, “But I don’t need anything else if you are with me.”   
Poppy noticed that she just confessed what she was complaining about, but it was completely true.   
Niall looked down at his best friend until he found her round, green eyes. They stared into each other’s eyes for a while and felt their breathings get heavier. Heavier and heavier, because Niall moved one hand up to her cheek and caressed it lightly with his fingertips.   
Then, he pressed his lips against hers gently, tasting her sweet gloss. But he quickly pulled away, resting his forehead against hers and shutting his eyes hard.   
The girl showed a half-smile and whispered, “Well, that was fucked up.”  
He removed his forehead and leaned his torso forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his face on his hands. He was shaking his head repeatedly.   
“ _I am_ fucked up.” He murmured. And then, looking at her, “I’m sorry, Poppy. I shouldn’t…”   
“It’s ok.” She replied while rubbing his back. “I don’t mind.”  
She ran her tongue along his upper lip slowly and then bit it, still feeling Niall’s kiss. It felt like a hard yet sweet punch in the stomach. She knew he kissed her because he was feeling lonely and confused, and she was there, a warm body to hold onto…   
She blinked a few times to hold back the tears.   
“You know, you should date Hunter.”  
That took Poppy by surprise.  
“Sorry?”   
“You just should. He’s a great guy and much more good looking than me.”  
“But he… Hunter is my friend, Niall.”   
“Well, he likes you. He told me.”   
Niall knew the boy would be thankful later. He didn’t tell her it was the reason that made Hunter let Ronny’s friends in and beat him, tho.  
“Why?” She asked. “I mean… why does he like me? It’s not like I’m…”  
Niall replied immediately, “You are incredible.”   
The looked at each other again and Poppy smiled wide, letting out a funny giggle.  
“You can’t stop flirting, right? You are a pimp!”  
Niall laughed out loud and pushed her gently, forcing her to lie down on the bed and tickling her sides while yelling “ _Take that back!_ ”, but Poppy never took it back. Niall gave up and laid next to her, both of them still smiling.   
“You know, Niall.” Poppy said after thinking about it, not very ashamed this time. “In a world without Lee’s or Ronny’s, or even Hunter’s… You and I would be the perfect couple.”  
Niall thought about it too and then slowly nodded because she was completely true.   
But that sentence… maybe she changed it a bit…  
“Did you get that from Twilight?” He asked. “You just changed werewolves and vampires for their names…”  
The ginger blushed, “Maybe.”  
And Niall let out such a loud laugh it hurt his bruised stomach and caused Poppy to laugh as well, covering her red face.   
“But hey, you are the one who recognizes quotes from Twilight.” She counted.   
Niall’s laugh stopped short and he moved his head to the left to look at her, who burst into laughter again like crazy.   
“Caught!” 

Lee went to see Niall just like she said on the letter. She entered the room as quietly as usual and sat on the bed next to the boy, who was resting his back against the wall. Lee moved closer very slowly, like she was afraid to scare him.   
They stayed next to each other for a while without saying anything at all until Lee dared to move her hand closer to his and he immediately wrapped his fingers around hers, grabbing them tight like he had been craving for them desperately. Lee noticed that he had bruises on his knuckles, probably from that one punch that people talk about at the Atwood High School, the punch that ignited the candle. Nobody ever taught Niall how to fight, so his punch was blind and inexperienced, causing him to get really hurt.   
“You look beautiful.” Niall whispered.   
And after looking at his wounds and sickly pale skin, Lee whispered back with a soft laugh, “You look horrible.”   
And Niall smiled, letting out a short laugh identical to hers.  
“It’s the first time you smile to me after… all of this.”   
He smiled again just to please her, and then shrugged. Her fingers were burning his.   
“You read my letter.”   
The boy’s eyes flew to the piece of paper over the bedside table.   
“I did.” He nodded. “But I didn’t understand it.”  
“What do you mean?”   
Niall looked at her for a few seconds and, “Does it say we’re over?”   
“No.” She replied immediately. Then, she thought about it. “I don’t know.”   
“Will you say hi to me tomorrow at high school? Or in a week? Will you say hi to me next week, Lee?”   
Lee’s eyes rose to glance at the boy, whose eyes seemed cold as ice, but were sparkling with tears. She held her breath.   
“What would happen if I don’t?”   
“We would be over.” And removed his hand.   
Lee howled like a wolf with a broken leg, low and sharp. She frowned and looked for his eyes, but she didn’t find them. She grabbed his hand again with both of her hands, taking it up to her chest.   
“There is no sense in playing games.” Niall murmured. “It’s hurting me and it’s hurting you.”   
“I’m not playing any game. You would be better off without me.”   
“Stop doing that!” Niall yelled all of a sudden, looking at her with mad eyes, the angriest ones Lee had ever seen. “Stop thinking for me, stop deciding for me, stop doing everything for me! It’s me who has to decide if I would be happier with or without you! You are not my fucking mother, you are my girlfriend, Lee!”  
When he shushed his breathing was still rough, but his eyes weren’t anymore. They were broken, torn. He swallowed hard.   
Lee’s voice was a murmur, “And what do you want, Niall?”  
“You.” He replied in an even lower voice. “I want you, Lee. Forever.”  
Forever. Such a strange word. Forever is too much time. Forever is _forever_ ; forever is impossible.   
But in that moment Niall believed it was more than possible, he thought they could be over and over. He didn’t doubt it and that’s why he crashed his lips against hers desperately, grabbing the back of her neck to pull her closer, as close as she could get, as their tongues made a beautiful but sad dance. Sad because Niall didn’t know that Lee had another idea in her mind, that she already made a decision; but she let him do it… Saying goodbye to her.   
Niall gently pushed her down on the bed, hovering her body with his and never cutting the kiss. One of his hands sneaked underneath her t-shirt and she gasped at his soft touch and how much she had missed it. She felt a sudden need for his body and pulled him closer, switching places. Now Lee was over him, sitting on his hips as they kissed.   
“I want you.” Niall repeated, but it had a different meaning this time.   
Lee nodded and took off her shirt and her bra, exposing her breasts. Niall sat up with the girl on his lap and sucked on them, one hand rubbing her back. Lee managed to take off his shirt, but Niall stopped her by looking into her eyes.   
“I’ll take care of you.” She whispered in his ear, and then took it off.   
She stared at the yellow and purple bruises in the boy’s torso and a shiver ran down her spine. They hurt him real bad, and she felt like it was all her fault. It only made her more sure about her decision though; nobody would hurt him like that ever again because of her. But she needed his forgiveness first.   
She ran her fingers along those scars and a thick tear fell over Niall’s torso.   
“Why are you crying, love?”   
She shook her head and bit her upper lip. Niall forced her to look at him by grabbing her chin.   
“Why are you crying?” He asked again, looking into her eyes.   
She whispered, “Forgive me, please.”   
Niall smiled sweetly and pulled her down, kissing her lips.   
“I forgive you, Lee.” He replied while caressing her cheek with a love that seemed holy. He grinned with that grin that makes your eyes look little. “Say you love me.”  
“I love you.” She said immediately, and she felt like she never said it before. “I swear to God I love you, Niall.”   
Lee leaned down and started to suck on his neck gently, causing Niall to hold his breath and close his eyes, enjoying her warm lips and soft smell.   
And, in her ear, he spoke “Say this is not over.”   
The girl swallowed hard and pulled away from his neck very slowly, then kissed over his closed eyes like Morpheus does. She blinked twice and two tears rolled down her cheeks, but she didn’t dry them up. Niall opened his eyes and they stared at each other for long seconds until Lee said,   
“This is not over.”   
But this time she didn’t swear to God.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25.  
When Niall came back to class it felt like nothing had changed but the truth is that everything was different. People looked at him with pity, some girls from his class that had never talked to him were around him all the time.   
Everybody loves an underdog; caring about them makes you feel a better person.   
Something else had changed as well. Lee was distant. She stopped calling, going to have lunch under the bleachers with Niall, she didn’t invite him to her house anymore. Niall could look into her eyes and see nothing, and whenever he asked what was wrong, she replied  
“I’m stressed. Too much work these days, that’s all.”  
The school year was about to finish, and they had exams each day. Everything you could see at their bedrooms was books and more books, some University papers and empty cans of Redbull.   
Anyway, those University papers were only over Lee’s table, she was moving to The Big City after summer. Niall was only studying to not fail the year, but he was going to stay there. Forever. And then, for him, the word _forever_ had a quite different meaning.   
“What is that shit that you are not going to any University, Niall?” Lee asked when she got to know it. It was the first time in a month that the girl looked straight into his eyes.   
Niall shrugged, “I don’t have any money.”  
“There are a lot of scholarships, and you are very intelligent. Too intelligent to don’t even try.”   
“It wouldn’t matter anyway. My mom agreed. I can’t move anywhere and start a brand new life, forget about all of this like you are going to do.”   
Lee looked away, feeling guilty.   
“Plus I don’t know what I want to do. Well, there is one thing… But I don’t think I…”  
Maybe two months ago Niall would have told her. He would have asked her about her opinion, but not in that moment. It wasn’t like it used to be, not at all. When people looked at them they didn’t see that privacy around them anymore.   
She asked anyway. And he replied ‘music’.   
“Do you want to work in the world of music? As in a job?”  
Niall shrugged.  
“I’m not talented enough for that. I mean, I am good… I know I am. But it’s not enough. Because, you know? There is such a difference between what I do and doing something actually… creative.”   
“Something actually creative? What do you mean?”  
She couldn’t understand; for Lee, Niall was more than creative. Niall was an artist.   
“Like… Imagine that you are able to feel the music very deep inside you and that affects your body somehow, and you have the need of moving all the time… and now imagine that, at the same time, it affects the people that’s listening your music. It’s like creating a bond… I guess.”   
“That sounds hard.” Lee murmured.   
“ _Very_ hard.” Niall replied. “So I’m not going to even try. Paying an arts school for nothing…”  
“But, Niall, if you don’t try…”   
Niall chuckled and shook his head, “Don’t talk to me about trying.” He said, and Lee felt a stab on her stomach. “I have decided, just like you. You decide to leave this damn town and study, I decide to stay here and work.”   
Lee knew that Niall was resentful to her, she knew that he hated her because she was making it last too long. But Lee couldn’t just say it was over, because she already said it wouldn’t be. She knew it was weak, but she just couldn’t say the words, so she let their relationship get cold and broken… And, along with their relationship, Niall started to get cold and broken too.  
He stopped sleeping properly, and whenever he woke up in the morning he felt like there was nothing to get up for, he just wanted to lie there and feel his heart pound blood all along his body, feeling dead in life and wanting Lee to come and finish him off. Because he couldn’t do it himself, he couldn’t go and tell her that it was over, he had already thought about it and tried to do it, but whenever he saw the girl… His knees still got weak and he wondered what was in her mind, if she still loved him, and wanted to ask her really bad, but didn’t dare. It was his biggest mistake. Not daring to ask anything anymore…  
That and, as Lee said in her letter, let one single person mean his whole world. He could hardly breathe without her. He was almost alive, and whenever he looked in her eyes he yelled for help in silence, but she never answered.   
_“I still love you, Lee, you know that, right?”_  
No, she never answered.   
Sometimes he also got mad. He couldn’t believe that the girl he loved the most in all his life had such a hard heart, made of stone. But he wasn’t right; her heart was even more vulnerable those days.   
One night, she doesn’t remember when or how or why, she decided it had to be over. She couldn’t keep hurting Niall like that, because he was also the boy she loved the most in all her life.   
But she knew there was only one way to break up with him… She had to lie.   
It was the end of the year and girls were already getting ready for Prom, you could hear the sighs when the hottest boy walked past by, all of them wishing for a simple question. Nobody sighed when Niall walked next to them, but Lee had already denied multiple invitations, some of them from very nice guys.   
Niall hadn’t asked her yet when she phoned him and told him to go to the little park near her house.   
When they sat on the grass and Lee finally looked at him directly in his eyes, Niall knew what she was going to say… and wanted to run away. She had a calm hard face that made him wish that he never went to that park. And when I say never, I mean never ever. Not the first time, nor the million after, nor the last one.   
“I know what you are going to say, Lee.” He murmured. “I know you lied to me when you said this wasn’t over. It already was, in the same moment you agreed that deal with Ronny.”  
Lee didn’t say anything. Niall looked at her.   
“But, Lee… it’s not working because you are not helping. It’s not working because you believe it’s not going to work… I tried for two months, and you never helped me…”  
“No, Niall.” She replied. “It’s not working because I don’t love you anymore.”   
Her voice didn’t tremble when she said it, but her whole face did for a short second. She had to do it. She had to lie so Niall would continue with his life and be happy again.   
“No.” His voice was a low, scared whisper. “No, no, no, Lee. You are lying. That’s not true.”  
“It’s true, I don’t love you. I don’t want to keep being your girlfriend, Niall.”  
Those words were hurting her throat like she was eating burning coal. Niall got up violently and threw one hand up to his forehead, rubbing it hard. He couldn’t understand it.   
“Why? What has changed?” He asked, looking at her with tearful eyes. “I… I promise I can be what you need, Lee. Anyone, anything, just ask… Ask whatever you want…”  
He was desperate, he felt like something that he needed to live was being taken away forever. He needed her love to live; he needed to know that Lee, somewhere, still loved him even though she didn’t show it anymore.   
“What… What I want, Niall… is not you.”   
Niall let out a loud chuckle that sounded like a little animal dying. He looked so deep into Lee’s eyes it made her feel uncomfortable, but he was only trying to find something left from the Lee he knew. He found nothing, absolutely nothing. Lee had learnt how to cover all of her emotions through those eighteen years of her life.   
Niall asked what was aching in his mind, “Have you ever loved me, Lee?”   
And the girl just shook her head no because she couldn’t manage to say a single word, and Niall nodded while shutting his eyes hard and two thick tears rolled down his eyes.   
_“This is how angels cry.”_ Lee thought. _“This is how angels die.”_  
He slowly walked towards her and doubted before leaning down and leaving a soft peck on her cheek with his eyes shut hard.   
Then, Niall left the park. He ran. He ran and ran until his lungs were on fire and he couldn’t breathe. He was somewhere in an empty street, he wasn’t sure where, and yelled. He let out a broken yell and kicked and punched a concrete wall, causing his old wounds in his left hand to open again and bleed. After that he let his back fall against the wall and looked up to the clear sky, a sky of summer, and his back crept down until he touched the floor.   
Back in the park, Lee was drowning in tears and murmuring the same thing again and again,   
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” 

 

The days went on and everybody got to know about their break up. It made the boys go crazy and start asking Lee for the Prom until she finally said yes to Kit Kydd, a guy that was usually mocked for his funny name. Anyway, he was very good looking and nice, and he didn’t try to have sex with her that night.   
Niall felt nothing when he got to know it, or when he heard that they were kind of dating. He didn’t feel anything either when Poppy told him that she couldn’t go with him to Prom because she was going with Hunter. They were together now, and very happy. Niall smiled but he couldn’t share their happiness.   
“Do you want to come with us?” Poppy asked then, knowing that her friend wasn’t in his best moment. “Hunter would love it.”  
“No, thank you. I’ll stay at home.”   
And that’s what he did, and didn’t care at all. He stayed at home taking care of Rachel, who tried to cheer him up by eating all the vegetables in her plate and smiling to him more than usual.   
They were lying on the couch, the little girl resting her body over one of Niall’s sides as he played with her long hair, when she spoke in a very quiet but surprisingly mature voice.  
“Did she break your heart?”  
Niall looked down at her, confused. She was looking at him with her round eyes, but her glance was kind of different. She really wanted to know.   
“Yes.” Niall said after a while of thinking, and he surprised himself. He refused to think that she did it. “I think so.”   
“Good. It had to get broken.”   
And rested her little head on his side again, satisfied. But Niall kept looking at her while frowning.   
“Hey, aren’t you too little to know about that?”  
“Maybe.” Then she thought about it. “But I’m a girl.”   
That was exactly the same thing that Poppy told him when he said she was smart. Girls know everything, they notice everything, they can lie to you and you would never know… Girls…  
“They can lie and you would never know.” Niall said in a quiet voice while frowning.  
Poppy rose up her head again and looked at him.  
“What?”  
“Nothing. No… nothing.” He shook his head and took a deep breath, trying to push Lee away from his thoughts. “Sleep, baby. It’s late.”  
The boy also fell asleep thinking that his life would be the same again, lonely and with the only company of a little girl and a kid, but he wasn’t right. 

Niall still had to see Lee in the corridors and at class for one more week until the school year would be over, and it still hurt him. She wouldn’t look at him anytime, like he was never there, like he never existed. It also hurt the girl.   
She thought about explaining it all to him millions of times, kissing his soft lips again and hold his body against hers, their warm cheeks touching. She wanted to explain that she would go to Uni and he would stay there, she wanted to explain that she couldn’t hurt him anymore, she just couldn’t… And at the same time she wanted to give him the best summer of his life, just the two of them alone again like before, but it was done. There was no turning back, it was definitely over.  
But she kept torturing herself, reviving that one last kiss on her cheek so many times, and the million ones before, she kept remembering all those promises and sweet words under the night, those whispers on the phone, his funny laugh… She hadn’t heard her laugh in three months.   
She also felt like something really important of herself was gone forever, and she had to learn how to live without it. If the boy would have known he would have probably chuckled and told her that she deserved it, that she made him feel like that in the park and for the rest of his days. Or maybe he would have hugged her tight and told her that he wasn’t gone, that he was just there…  
But Niall’s life was about to make the biggest turn ever and he wasn’t even aware.  
“Hey, watch where you’re going!”   
Niall just stepped onto a girl that was sitting on the floor with a friend.   
“I’m… I’m sorry.”  
“Yeah, whatever.”   
Both girl and her friend got up and left Niall standing there, and that was when he saw a paper hanging from the wall next to him. It had a guitar drawn on it and a lot of exclamations points.   
_YOU, HEY, YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!_  
Niall frowned and got closer to read it.   
_If know how to play guitar -acoustic or electric-, come to the address above on the 6th June after class for an audition to be a part of our band! You won’t regret it!!!  
If you want to contact to us, ask for Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles or Louis Tomlinson in secretariat. Oh, and if you also can sing you are already our man!  
And then, in a smaller and different letter you could read,  
PS; we’re sorry but if you have boobs you can’t be in. But we like boobs so ask in secretariat for us anyway. _  
Niall checked the date and the time in his mobile phone. It was the 6th June and the bell was about to ring, announcing the end of the school day.   
He smiled in actual happiness for the first time in three months and then ran to the room 102 to take his guitar.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26.  
Niall will never forget that audition. He went to the address in the paper; he even saw a poster hanging on the gate saying that the auditions were there, but when he entered to the garden -the gate was open-, nobody was there. He rounded the house but saw nobody. There was a garage with two guitars, a bass, a micro and a battery, but nobody.   
Then, he heard screams inside the house, something falling on the floor and getting broken and seconds later, loud laughs. The in the end of the garage slammed open and two guys entered while cracking up, not even noticing Niall there.   
“You fucking broke my lamp, Louis!”  
“Oh, who cares...!”  
The other two ones came in later.   
“Hi.” Niall said, coughing to get noticed.   
The four of them turned around to look at him and smiled at the same time. The only one to come closer and shake his hand was a curly guy with green eyes. Niall had seen him before, he was a year younger than him and, apparently, very popular among girls. Niall didn’t doubt it; his smile was kind and charming.  
“What’s your name?” He asked. “I saw you brought your own guitar, that’s nice.”  
“I’m Niall… and thanks.”  
The other three guys were sitting around the room. The one who seemed the older was on the stool of the battery, and played it for two seconds before speaking.  
“Niall what?”  
He was Louis Tomlinson. He failed one year for his bad behavior, he was the clown of the class and quite arrogant with all the teachers. He was in Niall’s music class when he was a freshman and he remembered Louis’ voice very good, but he also remembered he never came to class and, when he did, it was to make fun out of the teacher. She didn’t fail him because she didn’t want to fail him another year.   
He surely didn’t remember Niall, but the boy did.   
“Horan.” He replied quietly. “I’m Niall Horan.”  
“No!” he yelled immediately, letting out a loud laugh. The other ones looked at him instantly. “He’s the boy who dated Lee Fiddler! The one that Ronny and his friends beat!”  
“Hey, Louis, don’t be rude!”  
That was Liam Payne. Niall heard that he was like a British gentleman, and later he noticed that he was kid of the daddy there. He had short brown hair and he was from Niall’s same year, but they never were together in class.  
Same for the guy who threw Louis a battery stick, one with dark hair and eyes and tanned skin that was sitting over a table with one leg clenched against his chest and the other one hanging from the table. Niall guessed he was Zayn Malik, but he had never seen him before. Later he got to know that his parents sent him there with his old uncle -who was an ex soldier- from England because,  
 _“I had many problems in Bradford.”_  
Louis rubbed his head, hurt because of Zayn’s hit, and shot him a killing glance. Zayn smiled making his eyes look little and he stopped looking tough for a second even though he was still dressed all in black and leather and was lighting a cigar.   
It was Harry this time, who had a naughty grin in his face, who spoke,  
“That girl, Lee Fiddler, has a friend, right? Kristin… something?”  
Zayn looked up at Harry immediately.   
Hearing Lee’s name in their mouths made Niall’s stomach twitch, but he replied.   
“ _Kristen_ Wright. But they are no longer friends. Why asking?”   
“Zayn here invited her to Prom.”  
“Oh, come on!” He protested. “The kid is going to hate me now!”  
They were the same age, but he said ‘kid’ anyway.   
“Hey, Niall, I heard about your whole story with Lee -I think everybody has- and I’m very sorry about it. What Kristin did was ugly, but she was pretty so I asked her.”  
Niall laughed both because they kept calling her Kristin instead of Kristen and because what she did seemed very far away even though it blew up everything.   
Louis commented, “But she wore an ugly dress.”   
“And was completely empty, hey.” Zayn said while nodding. “Such an idiot. I fucked her and byebye.”   
“Zayn here is a poet.” Liam explained between laughs, rolling his eyes back. “If girls are ‘empty’ he doesn’t like them.”  
Zayn smiled and again he didn’t look tough. Harry looked at the boy.   
“Where are the others?”  
“Nobody out there.” Niall shrugged. “It’s only me.”  
The four guys looked at each other and their shoulders sink. Once again, they had failed.   
“Well, alright… Show us what you’ve got.”   
Niall opened the bag of his acoustic guitar and sat on a stool, starting to play a not very bad cover of Yesterday by The Beatles. It was his favourite song in that moment, and he thought it would be perfect.   
When he finished the boys looked at each other and smiled, all of them at the same time once again, like they had it trained.   
They hadn’t, though, they just spent so much time together they could communicate just like that. With time Niall also started to smile at the same time as them.   
“You are quite good.” Louis said from the battery, smirking. “Maybe you could improve something, but… I like you. What do you say, lads?”  
All of them nodded and the decision was made. Niall smiled wide and said thanks, and all of them got up and cheered him and invited him to come in.   
Niall noticed that they were very good friends, and very messy and loud. They were four, but it seemed like they were forty. Niall wasn’t sure if they were fighting, cuddling, none or both, but somehow it looked funny and nice, and he really wanted to be a part of it.  
“So, what’s our name?” Niall asked.   
Some of them replied,  
“Oh, does that matter?”  
The truth’s that they didn’t have one. No, not yet. 

 

The school year ended and everybody was excited. A lot of parties were planned, girls were wearing fewer clothes, drinks were cheaper and swimming pools were full.   
Lee got to know that Niall had new friends and a band because of Hunter, who was officially dating Poppy and hand out all together sometimes. Niall was starting to feel good again; not happy, but good. Those guys were amazing, and he became close friends with all of them in just one month.   
They used to go to rehearsal at Harry’s garage almost every afternoon, but they never really played or anything. They always ended up going to the public pool or playing football at some park, or they simply stayed there messing around. At night, they used to go to the city by Louis’ or Zayn’s car to get drunk and go clubbing, and Niall made out with many girls, as many as he could.   
The city was different, you could snog a girl and have never seen her before, and will never see her again, and that made him feel good, comfortable… But every time Niall drank too much he ended up having a break down and going outside of the club to have some fresh air. He usually ended up crying as well.   
“I don’t know how many girls I have snogged tonight… Jesus, I don’t even know how many fingers I have!” He said once to the boys, and laughed at himself while shaking his head. “But all of those girls mean absolutely nothing. I miss her. I look for her every night. I really fucking miss her.”  
And crashed his class against the floor, breaking it.   
“How many times have we told you not to drink too much, Niall?” Harry asked, rubbing his back. “You get… like this.”  
The boy shook his head again and his sobs made his shoulders move violently a couple of times.   
Pathetic, he was feeling pathetic.  
Barely a month had passed since they broke up, but…  
“I should have known. How could a girl like her love a loser like me?”   
Liam gave him his jacket and Zayn stepped in front of him, grabbing him by his shoulders and shaking his whole body.   
“Hey, dude, don’t say that.” He forced the blond boy to look at him, and his drunk voice sounded very rough and mad. “You are so not a loser. You are going to be famous, Niall, I know it. You, Harry, Liam, Louis and me. All of us. I just know it.”   
“Zayn, for fuck’s sake, we don’t even have a name…” Niall whined.   
“We will, and people will know it!” Harry exclaimed; alcohol always made him feel too enthusiastic. “We will get every girl in the world and Liv will be nothing!” All of them frowned, including Harry himself. He shook his head. “I mean, Lee!”  
He also had his own problems with girls.   
“Yeah, we will be called The Five Faggots.” Louis wasn’t feeling very well that night either, but the glance that his three other friends shot him made him shut up.   
“Come on, Niall, let’s go home.” Liam said. “All of us. I think we all are a bit tired.”   
Liam was as right as always. All of them had their own problems, as I said, with girls, parents or themselves.   
As they walked away from the club they were the perfect image of a group of lost teenagers trying to get as much of life as they could, but they still had got nothing compared to what they were going to.  
Zayn was usually right too. 

 

Oh, Niall and Lee met again. It was by mistake, but it was also a huge mistake itself.   
It was the middle of the summer holidays, around 1:00PM, and the public swimming pool was crowded. Niall went there with the boys, Poppy and Rachel -her parents almost begged him to take her with them-; Hunter was at home studying, he failed many subjects.   
They were laying on the grass, the little girl running and lying over all of them, but paying an especial attention to Louis. She had a favourite one each week, and that one it was Louis.   
Niall, Zayn and Harry were playing cards when Niall saw her.   
Poppy was doing Rach’s hair, who finally got to like the ginger girl, and was the first one to notice that Niall had seen Lee. She grabbed his hand.   
He murmured a low, “No, not now. Not here.”  
Niall usually felt comfortable they went to the public pool because, even though a lot of people from high school used to go, Lee didn’t. She had her own pool at home, but that day she decided to go there with some friends.   
“Niall, your turn.” He heard someone calling. “Hey, Niall, you slow idiot! Come on!”   
But he wasn’t listening. His eyes were fixed on the girl, who was slowly undressing herself just like Niall had done so many times before. Her hair was longer now, and also brighter because of the sun. Her skin was dark itself, but now it had a gorgeous golden light.   
She was absolutely stunning.   
“It’s Lee; don’t turn around all of you at the same time.” Poppy said in a very low voice, trying that Niall wouldn’t hear it although he wouldn’t anyway. The boys turned around to look at her at the same time, of course. “I fucking told you not to…!”  
And there was a collective ‘wow’ that turned into wide eyes when Lee saw them as well and started to walk towards them. Lee’s face as inscrutable when she said hi and asked to talk alone to Niall, who got up like a robot and followed her steps.   
They were walking along the edge of the swimming pool. Lee was trying to make Niall look at her, but the boy had his eyes fixed on the ground, not hearing a single word that was coming out of her mouth until she asked,  
“I heard you have a band now.” She said, and smiled. “How is it?”  
“Good, I guess.”  
Lee started to wonder why did she ask to talk to Niall. She knew it would be awkward and she knew it was wrong, but she needed to know if he could laugh again.   
If he could, she didn’t get to see it.   
“How are you doing, then?”   
She just couldn’t stop asking questions, but Niall never got her the answer she wanted.  
“I heard you are dating Kit Kydd now.” He said and their eyes met for the first time. It felt like looked at all of your mistakes and best moments ever at the same time, and it almost made them feel dizzy. “How is he? Better than me?”  
Niall knew he shouldn’t say that, but the words came out from his mouth without even thinking.   
“We are not dating, we just…”  
“Hook up sometimes?”  
“Please, don’t be rude.” Lee was actually begging.   
They kept walking without saying anything until Niall stopped still and sat on the edge of the pool, entering his feel into the cold water. Lee did the same and it made her feel a little bit better.   
Niall shut his eyes hard and spoke,  
“Lee, listen, I…”  
But the girl didn’t let him finish. She knew what was going to happen, and it couldn’t be. She knew Niall would say anything to get her back, and she would be back because she still felt like he was the stolen piece that was missing inside of her. And there was only one month and a half until she had to move to New York…  
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come to talk to you. It was a mistake. I just wanted to know if you were doing all right, and now I know it.”  
She got up and was walking away when she heard him yelling,   
“Like you ever cared! Like you ever cared if I was ok or not! You fucked me up and now you don’t give a damn, you… selfish bitch!”  
Those two words came out of his mouth lower because he actually never meant them, but people looked at them anyway and murmured.   
Lee kept walking with a sad smile on her lips and a single tear menacing to fall down.   
And before that tear fell on the ground and got mixed with the pool water, Lee murmured,  
“Yes, Niall, I miss you too.” 

 

The summer holidays were about to finish, the sun was starting to go down sooner, the days were colder and the parties were shorter.   
That afternoon, Liam was late, very late, which was strange in him because he was always the first one to arrive. But when he entered the garage he had a huge smile on his lips and showed them a paper. It was already dark and the boys didn’t want to read that paper; Liam was an hour late.   
But anyway, he said, “We are auditioning for The X Factor!”  
There were chuckles and not very convinced growls.   
“They’ll laugh at us.”  
“They won’t!” Liam exclaimed, never stopping smiling. “You know we are good enough! Come on, boys, we are good enough. Everything big starts at a garage. We are One Direction.”  
They finally had a name.   
Louis took the paper in his hands.  
“Okay, so if we go…”   
“Yes!” Liam jumped. “It’s our chance!”   
“We’ll have to work hard until the audition, and after it if we get through.” Harry said, looking at them with serious eyes. “We’ll have to work very, very hard, you know that?”   
“I’m in.” Niall said, and there was no doubt in his voice.   
Liam rounded the boy with one arm and shook him gently. That was the only thing they needed, a first one to join. The other guys looked at each other, thinking about it seriously. Were they actually going to let that chance pass?  
“Boys?” Liam called them. “Are we all in or what?”  
And, at the same time, all of them replied,   
“Yes.”  
There was a general yell of excitement and they hugged violently while jumping, almost crashing against each other.  
“If we want to get through we need to be original, creative.” Zayn said. “We have to sing one of our songs.”  
“And we should sing an acoustic one.” Louis added. “We can’t really play any instrument, only Niall can do it properly. So, our strong point is mixing our voices…”  
“What if we sing Niall’s song?” Harry asked. The blond boy looked at him while frowning. Truly, Madly, Deeply. It’s perfect for it.”  
All of them nodded in agreement, but Niall started to shake his head and stutter.   
“No, it’s not good enough… It’s not _creative_ enough…”  
“Who says it’s not? It’s just what we need!”  
Niall tried to convince them to sing another song, but they already had decided it.   
So, at the end, it looked like Niall _was_ creative enough to work in the world of music… Yeah, as in a job.  
“Let’s go celebrate it.” Zayn said, taking the keys of his amazing convertible car. The boys looked at him with doubting eyes. “Come on, guys, we’ll start working seriously tomorrow. For now, let’s celebrate that we are young and about to become stars!”  
Zayn didn’t know how right he was when he jumped into his car, the other four boys following him. 

_Don’t you just love that fresh air in your face while you are driving fast, as fast as you can? When it’s summer and it’s dark and you have nothing to do but look up at the sky and wonder everything and realize that you have no idea about anything but well, at least you are alive?  
Don’t you love the smell of that fresh air and of those summer nights? That freedom you feel and that peace because you are young and you are with your friends and nothing else matters? _  
Niall looked over his shoulder and smiled, his face only illuminated by the moonlight. The road was infinite. He tapped his fingers over the red steel of Zayn’s convertible car and listened closer to the song. He didn’t know which song was it, but he loved it anyway.   
“Hey, where are we going?” He asked.  
The other four boys looked at each other.   
“Who cares?”   
And for the first time ever, he loved America.


	27. Chapter 27

Epilogue.  
It had been one year, three months and twelve days since that day at the garage. Niall had counted them because he just couldn’t believe that what was happening was true and not a dream, and he wouldn’t wake up all of a sudden and be back in the Atwood High School, which was his Hell but also Heaven through four years.   
In such a little time Niall and the boys were travelling around the world and, as Harry said once, girls were screaming their names out of their lungs, but Harry wasn’t fully right. Lee wasn’t ‘nothing’ for Niall, not even after that year. He learnt not to hate her and forgive her, but she was still there in his mind as a bittersweet memory. He sometimes thought about her and remembered all of their soft words and sweet moments, and he was able to smile. That used to make him smile even bigger; nostalgia is such a beautifully sad feeling. 

That night they were in New York. They were touring around America, and that night the concert was in The Big City, and it was impossible for Niall not to think about Lee. He wondered if she still lived there, and he was sure she did even though he heard that she was having trouble there, but he knew Lee was a rough girl and would never leave something without finishing it.   
And just because of that, when Lee got to know that the boys were in New York, she did everything that was in her hand to finish what she started a long time ago at that swimming pool.   
“Wow, that was simply amazing. Best gig ever!”   
They back at the hotel after the concert and Niall couldn’t stop smiling. He was sweaty, his throat was sore and he was exhausted, but the crowd had been so amazing he just couldn’t stop smiling. Just when he sat on a couch, a bodyguard called him,  
“Niall, someone is waiting for you. She’s waiting up in the roof.”  
It was a dark cold night up in that eighth floor of that incredibly big building; the lights of the city didn’t allow the stars to show. Niall went upstairs with his bodyguard and his heart racing with a strange feeling. He kept asking the bodyguard who was it and the man just kept shrugging, and stayed inside when Niall opened the door to the roof and the wind hit him in the face.   
He saw a very familiar figure looking down from the fence, her hair blowing under her shoulders with the wind. It was shorter now, probably hanging in her shoulders, and she had dyed it lighter. When she turned around and Niall saw her face, he swallowed hard.   
“It’s a shame that this city has so many lights, you can’t see a single star…” She said, slowly walking towards Niall. “But it’s beautiful anyway, don’t you think? It’s a 24h movie.”  
Niall couldn’t help a short laugh and simply said, “Lee.”  
They looked at each other for a moment and then hugged. They held each other tight like old friends do, with a big grin on their lips and closed eyes.  
Niall pulled away and grabbed her by her shoulders, a bit away from him to take a good stare at the girl that was now a complete 20 years old woman -even though that hair made her face look younger and smoother.   
She was as beautiful as always and couldn’t stop smiling.   
“Lee.” Niall said again, not able to say any other word.   
“It’s been such a long time, right?”  
“One year, three months and twelve days.” He replied, and then looked at his watch. “Thirteen now, it’s past twelve.”   
“You’ve been counting the days, huh? I see you are doing fine… You don’t know how hard it was to get here; I’m lucky that Zayn saw me and recognized me.”  
She walked away from him, back at the fence, and Niall followed her steps. Both of them placed their forearms on it and looked down at the fleeting lights of the cars.   
“I just can’t believe what’s happening, my lips hurt too much for smiling all the time and my ears still buzz from the last concert and…”  
“And you made it.” Lee cut him off, looking at him with emotional eyes. “You said you weren’t good enough, but you are. I watched you everyday in the X Factor, and you were perfect, even your audition… But I have to say that the first time that you sang Truly, Madly, Deeply, it sounded better to me.”  
Niall nodded with a half smile while glancing up to the dark sky, and then watched her light a cigarette. And as she did it, the light of the fire made something in her chest shine and catch Niall’s attention: it was the ring that he gave her for her birthday last year. That made him get tons of memories that crashed against his body like a wave of concrete making his lungs run out of air and his eyes get wet.   
Lee never took off that light chain.   
“Why are you here, Lee?”  
Lee’s eyes flew up to meet his and saw the tears menacing. She frowned and bit her upper lip in that way that Niall loved.   
“I guess I wanted to apologize for what I did to you.” She murmured. “It was selfish and childish, and I… I haven’t stopped thinking about it since then. I haven’t stopped thinking ‘What if I had told him that I lied, just to protect him, when I said that I never loved him? What if I had told him that I loved him as much as the first day? Would we be together now, would he love me back?”  
She said all of this looking into Niall’s eyes, and he had no doubt that, this time, she wasn’t lying.   
“You couldn’t stop bossing around, huh?” He smiled sweetly and his eyes turned little, making those tears travel to the corner of his eyes. And then he said with a broken voice, “I’m really glad to see you again, Lee.”   
And she replied in a whisper, “Do you think that we could be friends again?”  
There were no ulterior motives in her voice, it was completely innocent and desperate; she truly needed Niall to be her friend again. He nodded repeatedly and kissed in her forehead, rounding her body with his arms and finding again that warm feeling that used to wrap their hearts. And Lee had to bury her face in his chest to let out all the blame and pain she had been keeping inside, and the tears blurred her eyes and stained Niall’s shirt of black make-up. 

_Cry! Do not be ashamed  
to confess that you loved me a little.  
Cry! No one is watching us!  
You see: I am a man... and I cry too! _


End file.
